LA Angels Wednesday News Crash: Wash Gone

I’m to GA to read all the comments, so I apologize if this has already been stated in one form or another.

First off, hiring Pujols or Hunter as the manager is a fool’s errand at best. Everyone knows their on-field accomplishments. They are to be celebrated and respected for that, regardless of late-career decline (I’m looking at you, Albert). However, that does not automatically translate to guaranteed managerial success. Neither of them has any manager experience that I am aware of.

In this scenario, it seems that bringing Wash back for 2026 with Pujols or Hunter installed as the bench coach as the manager in waiting might have been a better option. That way, they gain exposure to what day-to-day management entails. Viewing manager decisions as a player would be far different than viewing them through the lens of a coach, I would think.

Would Wash have agreed to this, knowing he was certain to be done by the end of the season? Probably not. But it seems a far better option than throwing someone with no manager or even coaching experience out there.

As far as the GM position, it’s not like Minsian has lit the world on fire. He hasn’t been a total failure either. He’s been, meh, at best. If the Angels could find someone who could do the job better, it’s probably a reasonably good time to make the change.

But can they find someone who is also willing to work for the Angels and all that that entails? The prevailing wisdom seems to be that no ‘quality’ GM would want to work for Arte. But how accurate is that within the ranks of MLB front-office people? We don’t really know.

Lastly, the one constant over the decline of the franchise is those in upper management. The vitriol directed at them is justified.

Does anyone trust them to make better decisions than history has shown them capable of making? Personally, I don’t think so.

As far as Artes meddling, admitting to being the cause of the organization’s failings requires a lot more introspection than I think most billionaires have. After all, they are billionaires, which means they have been successful enough to attain such wealth; so long as it did not come from winning the sperm donor lottery. So, they don’t think they can be successful, they KNOW they can. Whether that is a true statement or not.

Either way, I’ll still be an Angels fan. Which sucks for me because I’m also a UCLA fan, so my choices in teams are clearly poor. But, hey, hockey season is upon us, so GO KINGS GO! GO REIGN GO!