Jon Daniels

• Born August 24, 1977

Jon Daniels was named General Manager of the Texas Rangers on October 4th, 2005. At the age of 28 years and 41 days, he became the youngest GM in major league history, about 10 months younger than Theo Epstein was when he became the Boston Red Sox General Manager. His contract was renewed following the Rangers' excellent 2010 season, when they reached the World Series for the first time. The negotiations were marked by interference by Rangers CEO Chuck Greenberg, one of the issues that led to Greenberg being forced to step down in favor of Nolan Ryan in spring training 2011. In early 2013, Daniels was promoted to President and Chief of baseball operations for the Rangers, while still keeping his responsibilities as General Manager. With Ryan's resignation from the Rangers that year, Daniels acquired more profile, as the ownership's public face, given that the team's co-chairmen, Ray Davis and Bob Simpson preferred to stay in the background and not to interfere with baseball decisions.

One of the major developments of Daniels' tenure as team president was the decision to build a new ballpark, Globe Life Field, which opened in 2020. Following that season, he decided to split his responsibilities, keeping those of President of Baseball Operations, and naming former player (but also Ivy League graduate) Chris Young as the General Manager. On August 17, 2022, he was relieved of his duties by team owner Davis, with Young taking over as Head of Baseball Operations. This came only days after the firing of manager Chris Woodward.

In November of 2022, he was hired by the Tampa Bay Rays as a senior adviser in their baseball operations department.

Preceded by John Hart

Texas Rangers General Manager 2005-2020

Succeeded by Chris Young

Further Reading

• Adam Berry: "Rays hire former Rangers exec Jon Daniels as senior advisor", mlb.com, November 11, 2022. [1]
• Steven Hawkins (Associated Press); "Daniels out as Rangers president after 17 years leading club", Yahoo! News, August 17, 2022. [2]