Former GM Jim Bowden: What Ron Washington needs to do in 2013 to maintain job security

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10 THINGS TO KNOW AS RANGERS OPEN SPRING TRAINING: When Rangers' pitchers and catchers report Tuesday, there will be more questions swirling around the club than there have been in years. The off-season wasn't especially kind to the Rangers, who lost plenty of big names, struck out on plenty others, and are going to lean on some young players to fill the gaps. So as spring training kicks off, here are 10 stories Rangers fans should stay on top of. You can click the links at the bottom of each slide to get more of our spring coverage.
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Former baseball general manager Jim Bowden joined Ben & Skin on KESN-FM 103.3. Here are some highlights.

On whether Rangers' manager Ron Washington is on the hot seat:

Jim Bowden: There's a lot of pressure on managers to win when their teams are good enough to win. As long as Ron Washington makes the playoffs, his job will be fine. I think that's the key, whether it's the division or the wild-card, he's gotta do that. If the Rangers are on the outside looking in come November, it would not surprise me at all if they decided to make a change. So, yeah, I think there is pressure there.

Is there pressure there unrelated to whether or not he plays Profar?

Jim Bowden: I don't think there's any question that when you're sitting in that manager's seat  you have to listen to what your president Nolan Ryan and  your GM Jon Daniels wants done. And although it's your job to manage the players  you're given, an organization needs to be on the same page. If you start to have a situation where the manager is not on the same page as Nolan and Jon, that's when you have problems. My understanding in talking to the three of them is that they're on the same page and they work hard to stay on the same page.

On Martin Perez:

Jim Bowden: He has to go win the job, and then he needs to go prove that he's better than either Holland or Ogando. And if not, guess what, he'll go back to the bullpen or back to Triple-A when Colby Lewis comes back. Ogando's gonna start. He wants to start and they're going to allow him to do that. At No. 5, you've got some competition, and I don't think Martin Perez has won the fifth job. I think they'll still look at Grimm, they'll look at Ross. Whoever wins that job, I think they understand that your first five starts are going to be very important. When players get opportunities, they've gotta make the most of it.

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