By Jordan Long
The L.A. Angels finished the season at 73-89, missing the playoffs for the 9th year in a row. With the disappointing year, they decided to move on from Manager Phil Nevin. They hired his replacement, Ron Washington.
Nevin had been the Angels’ Manager since they fired Joe Maddon 56 games into the 2022 season. At the time, the Angels record stood at 27-29. It was a surprising firing since they weren’t out of a playoff spot. Nevin took over and finished the year with a 46-60 record. Overall in 2022, the Angels were 73-89.
This past season was Nevin’s first full season as the Manager for the Angels. It didn’t go so well. The Angels finished with a 73-89 record. The Angels didn’t see improvement so they fired Nevin on October 2nd. It felt like Nevin wasn’t given a chance to show what he could do as a manager. Sure, the Angels didn’t play great baseball under him with a record of 119-149, a winning percentage of .444. Either way, 268 games isn’t enough to see if he was the right fit but they fired him anyway.
The Angels found their next guy to be their manager, Ron Washington. Washington spent the past two years as the Braves third-base coach. According to ESPN.com, Braves President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Alex Anthopoulos said, “He’s everything you could want, he deserves the opportunity. He’s excited. Obviously, I’m excited for him. It’s a huge loss for us. I emphasize that in caps, bold, italicized, all of it. Huge void. But I had six years with him, and I can’t imagine I’ll be around a guy like that in my entire career.”
Washington brings in 1,275 games of managerial experience, all with the Texas Rangers from 2007 to 140 games into the 2014 season. The Rangers were a winning ball club under him. Washington’s record with the Rangers was 664-611, a winning percentage of .521. The Rangers earned a playoff spot 3 times and won the American League Pennant in 2010 and 2011. In 2014 The Rangers fired Washington when they were 53-87. Their final record that year was 67-95.
The Angels feel Washington is the right man for the job. The problem with the Angels is they need to give him a few years. They can’t fire Washington after one bad season. The Angels want to be a winning ball club but they must be patient. Hopefully, Washington can deliver. Of course, the ultimate goal is to win the World Series. The Angels haven’t won it all since 2002.
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