Hiram Moreno
Joe Maddon’s tenure with the Los Angeles Angels was scheduled to finish at the end of this season after his three-year contract expired, but it came to a more abrupt end after the franchise announced the firing of the veteran manager during this Tuesday.
After the departure of Joe Maddon, the person in charge of taking the reins of the team on an interim basis will be third base coach Phil Nevin.He is in his first year with the Angels and has already had experience as a coach with other teams such as the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees.
The news may not have been entirely a surprise, since The Angels are currently riding a 12-game losing streak, which to no one’s surprise is the worst in all of Major League Baseball. This has jeopardized their wild-card postseason chances—though there’s still plenty of season to go.
It may be precisely this that has made Joe Maddon surprised to learn of the board’s decision, regardless of the current results.
Surprised? A little. In fact, quite a lot. You always trust the people in charge to read the tea leaves correctly. This time, they didn’t. You don’t even have to ask me. You can ask any of the players or coaches. They are the ones who really know.
Joe Maddon to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic
However, Angels general manager Perry Minassian defended the organization’s decision based on recent results, alluding to them by saying the team needed a change.
It is something that I would not have imagined would happen three weeks ago… I love Joe Maddon very much. I like the person, I like the conversations. To this day, I feel like it was the right decision.
Perry Minassian to Sam Blum of The Athletic
Is this the end of Joe Maddon’s career?
Rather than blaming himself or the team’s lack of competitiveness, Joe Maddon stated that all of the terrible things simply happened at the same time. Difficult opponents, injuries, inefficiency in the bullpen, poor hitting, everything conspired against him in this losing streak.
Beyond the losing streak, the manager commented that he wants to continue working in the MLB. However, Maddon’s time with the Angels was not the best, since he finished his time with the team with a record of 157-172, never had a positive record in a season and never qualified for the postseason; although with the Houston Astros and the Oakland Athletics as competitors, he did not have it easy anyways.
