With the Angels posting yet another losing record and watching the playoffs, those in charge of the failure are looking to make a managerial change.
The guy who has been team president since 2009? He’s safe and will be part of the search committee.
How about the guy who has been chairman of the team since 2009? Also safe and part of the committee.
Their extensive backgrounds in being Arte Moreno’s friends combined with experience in the billboard industry clearly outweigh the results on the field. They might have screwed the pooch for 16 years, but this time they’ll right the ship.
Consider this, at the time they were promoted to their current positions the Angels had just lost in the ALCS to a very roided up Alex Rodriguez and the incredibly short porch in the Bronx right field. The team was coming off 3 consecutive division championships and had reached October in 5 of the previous 6 years; all AL West champions.
Now the team is 11 seasons removed from the lone playoff appearance of the Carpino/Kuhl era. It has been a decade of consecutive losing seasons despite having a prime Mike Trout, six seasons of Shohei Ohtani, and consistently high payrolls.
The solution, in their eyes, is to yet again replace the field manager. Ron Washington was officially canned as the Angels skipper with the team citing performance, not his health, as the reason for the move.
In typical Wash fashion, he dropped a great comment on his way out of the door.
Yes, team Arte/Carpino/Kuhl expects the field manager to make chicken salad out of chicken bleep.
The next chef to attempt to make chicken salad very well could be Albert Pujols. His playing career worked out so well here, why not?
I kid a bit, but this isn’t as outlandish as it seem. Pujols has been managing in the Dominican Republic since his retirement from baseball in 2022. He was long seen as an idol of Latin American players and carries a high level of respect from many in the game.
There are also reports of Pujols being a selfish player at times and nearly coming to blows with Torii Hunter at one point. That was a dozen years ago and involves two big egos.
Ironically, Torii Hunter is also being considered for the job and was spotted in the Angels dugout many times towards the end of the season.
I’ve also seen Torii at Spring Training the last couple of years. His trademark smile still lights up his surroundings.
From around baseball:
The Angels are far from the only team making a manager change. Bruce Bochy is one of my all time favorites but I have no illusions we are a match.
We should be lucky we aren’t Colorado Rockies fans. After posting a franchise worst record, their GM stepped down.
We have wall to wall MLB playoff games this weekend. They could not have timed this better for me. I have no open houses to host, no fights to watch or attend, even my Steelers are on a bye week.
Enjoy the playoffs and link what I missed. There will be storylines aplenty during the off season so I kept this one pretty much focused. I will spend the weekend with my family and catch games when I can.
I will post this. I was at this game and loved every second of it. Hope we can get back to life like this.
