Another member of the Boone family has ascended to a prominent dugout position.
The Texas Rangers announced on Monday that they have hired Bret Boone to serve as their new hitting coach. The move comes just one day after the Rangers had made a big shake-up by firing offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker.
The 56-year-old Bret is the brother of New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone. Of course, older baseball fans know Bret very well on his own merits as he played in Major League Baseball from 1992-2005. Bret was a three-time MLB All-Star, a four-time Gold Glove winner at second base, and a two-time Silver Slugger Award winner.
In total, Bret played for five different MLB teams (Seattle, Cincinnati, Atlanta, San Diego, and Minnesota) but had his best years with the Mariners from 2001-05. He also led the American League in RBIs during the 2001 season with 141.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today notes that Bret has known current Rangers manager Bruce Bochy for decades (even briefly overlapping with Bochy during Bochy’s time as manager of the San Diego Padres). Bret is also said to be a longtime friend of ex-MLB manager Phil Nevin, who is another one of Bochy’s former Padres players.
That said, Bret does not have any coaching experience to note and will face a difficult challenge of turning around a 17-18 Rangers team that has the fewest runs scored in the AL this season. But with Aaron in charge of the Yankees (and recently getting a big pay raise from the team) plus family patriarch Bob Boone also having served as an MLB manager, Bret certainly has it in his DNA.
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