Today is the first full-squad workout day of the first season of Chris Woodward’s first managerial opportunity.

If nothing else, that alone brings a sense of optimism to Rangers camp. A new approach, a new philosophy, a new voice.

Four years ago, Jeff Banister was in the same situation, getting his first opportunity to manage, his first opportunity to put his stamp on the Texas Rangers. He, like Woodward, was taking over a last-place team that lost 95 games.

Banister’s 2015 team had much more talent than Woodward’s 2019 team has. It had Adrian Beltre and Prince Fielder. It had Colby Lewis. This Rangers team doesn’t have anyone close to that talent level.

And, while the 2015 surprised everyone and won the A.L. West, it did so only after Jon Daniels pulled a rabbit out of his hat and traded for Cole Hamels, Sam Dyson, and Jake Diekman, and, maybe even more importantly, jettisoned Leonys Martin and Tanner Scheppers so Jeff Banister couldn’t keep throwing lighter fluid onto a fire.

The Rangers were in third place, eight games out of first but just five games out of last, when Jon Daniels remade the 2015 team. It worked. And Jeff Banister won a Manager of the Year award for it.

That is the historical context Chris Woodward and Rangers fans face now. The last time Texas was in this exact position—new manager, coming off a 95-loss season—they won the West.

Only now they are going to have to do it with Joey Gallo’s bat instead of Adrian Beltre’s. With Rougned Odor’s bat instead of Prince Fielder’s.

The biggest difference between this opportunity and the one in 2015 is the division. The Astros are just too strong and the talent gap just too wide for any reasonable person to think the Rangers have a chance of catching Houston.

But, it’s baseball. Anything can happen.

Jeff Banister teams were known for getting out of the gate slowly, burying themselves into huge holes and then having to dig out.

Let’s welcome a new era. Hope is in the air.

At least until opening day.