Los Angeles Angels Make A Change At The Helm, Fire Joe Maddon

This time a month ago, the Angels were seven games above .500 and in first place in the American League West. Going into Tuesday night’s games, the Angels have only dropped to second in their division, but their trajectory has them headed in an even worse direction.

Losers of their last 12 games in a row, the Angels are now two games below .500 and have given the Astros an 8.5 game lead in their division.

Expectations in Los Angeles are always high for both of their baseball teams, and increasingly the inability of the Angels to fully capitalize on the talents of Mike Trout — and lately, Trout and Shohei Ohtani — is creating a growing sense of impatience in Anaheim.

“It’s gut-wrenching at times, no question about that,” manager Joe Maddon told The Athletic’s Sam Blum. “But you’ve got to move on to the next day. … You go back home and try to fix it, and that’s it.”

Blum also tweeted the transcription of an exchange he had with Maddon after the team’s most recent loss that would seem to indicate that the tensions created by losing are breaking through Maddon’s typically relaxed demeanor.

This afternoon, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweeted, “The Angels have discussed making a change at manager.”

Minutes later, the team announced what many suspected was coming, announcing the Maddon had been “relieved of his duties” and that Phil Nevin will serve as the interim manager.

This is an about-face from where the Angels were with Maddon just a few months ago. He is in his final year of his contract with Los Angeles, and according to Blum, the team had approached him about an extension this past offseason.

But prolonged losing streaks have a way of changing plans. Maddon’s old team, the Cubs, went from considering being buyers at last year’s trade deadline in late June to trading away almost all of their core pieces after a streak of a dozen losses.

Maddon, 68, has a résumé that could mean other teams will be interesting in bringing him on board. He was a bench coach in the Angels system for many years before taking his first full-time managerial job with the Rays in 2006. Maddon brought the Rays to the World Series in 2008 and lead them to winning seasons six times before he joined the Cubs in 2015. In Chicago, he famously skippered the 2016 team that won the World Series and ended a 108-year drought.

But winning that World Series didn’t shield Maddon from criticism in Chicago. He was heavily questioned for his bullpen use during the World Series, particularly in Game 7, and as the team struggled to replicate its success in the following years, fans at Wrigley Field grew impatient with Maddon. The two final nails came when the team lost the division in 2018 in a game 163 to the Brewers and then lost the National League wild card game the next night, and then in 2019 when they failed to reach the postseason at all, marking the first time that happened since he had joined the Cubs.

Maddon’s famously chill comportment worked well when managing teams through high-stress situations, especially as he guided a young Cubs team to a championship. But when teams have needed a kick in the rear instead of a pat on the back, Maddon is not always the man for that job. As the Angels have lost ground in the division, it had become clear that they needed someone else leading the team.

At this point, and given what he has accomplished, Maddon could choose to retire. He was a successful bench coach before going to Tampa Bay, but that might not be a role he is willing to accept anymore.