Tim Hyers, the Texas Rangers' hitting coach for the 2022-24 season, has joined the Atlanta Braves as their new hitting coach, it was announced today.

The Rangers had previously indicated that they expected all of their major league personnel to return for the 2025 season, so this does not appear to be a case of Hyers leaving. According to the beat people, this is an opportunity for Atlanta native Hyers to be closer to his family.

One of the interesting things about the 2024 season to me was that the only team that was clearly better offensively than the Texas Rangers in 2023 was the Atlanta Braves, and they saw an even bigger (relative) decline in performance from 2023 to 2024 than that Rangers. The Braves let their hitting coach Kevin Seitzer leave at the end of the regular season.

Hyers was signed by the Rangers from the Boston Red Sox after the 2021 season. Hyers was an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2016-17 and Boston's hitting coach from 2018-21. Boston wanted to bring Hyers back for 2022, but he passed on it and was instead offered a seemingly larger bag by the Rangers.

The Rangers still have Donnie Ecker as offensive coordinator and will now likely bring in a hitting coach to work with Ecker and replace Hyers. I realize that some Rangers fans will see Hyers' departure as a positive for the club, although I don't know if that is actually the case.