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When the Los Angeles Angels made the surprising move of firing manager Joe Maddon in June during a 12-game losing streak, the hope was that the move would kickstart the Angels back to the winning ways they experienced to start the 2022 MLB season.
After beginning the year 27-17, the Angels went through a brutal stretch at the end of May and the beginning of June, culminating in the firing of Maddon and the promotion of third-base coach Phil Nevin to interim manager.
Joe Maddon of the Los Angeles Angels reacts during a game against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on June 5, 2022. (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
The move has done nothing for the Angels' playoff hopes as Los Angeles is on its way to missing the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.
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"It doesn’t make me feel better, it doesn’t make me feel worse," Maddon told the Tampa Bay Times of the Angels' struggles since his firing. "Organizationally, I’m kind of numb to the whole thing. Because when you wish them badly, I’m wishing really good friends badly — and I can’t do that."
Even with two generational talents in Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, the Angels have been unable to build around their two stars, failing to finish above .500 every year since 2015.
"The infrastructure needs to be improved. There’s a lot of things that need to be improved there," Maddon said of the Angels. "These guys can’t do it alone, obviously. It’s the non-sexy stuff that has to get better. It’s not just bright, shiny objects — they have that.
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Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon talks to the media before a game against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on June 5, 2022. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
"They need to do the infrastructure better in order to get to where we had been in the past. That was my goal, to get the Angels back to where we had been in the past. That was it. Nothing but pure intentions. I was an Angel. They had every ounce of me. And now that’s done."
That may happen sooner rather than later in L.A. with Angels' owner Arte Moreno announcing on Tuesday that he will consider selling the team.
Maddon is currently enjoying his time away from baseball, telling the Tampa Bay Times that he feels like a teenager as he spends his time enjoying the "three G’s — golfing, gardening and grilling."
But Maddon doesn’t appear to be done with baseball, saying that he would consider managing again if the right situation presented itself.
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"I would only go into that marriage really feeling good about that I’m philosophically aligned with whomever I’m going to work with," he said. "Meaning, it has to be a balance, it just can’t be lopsided analytically. Baseball operation has to be one that understands both sides and understands it well."
The "balance" for Maddon would mean an organization’s front office staying out of making day-to-day decisions for the manager to implement, as so many teams have become more reliant on analytics.
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Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani talks to Brandon Marsh before a game against the Texas Rangers on July 31, 2022, in Anaheim, California. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
"It’s at the point where some GM should really just put a uniform on and go down to the dugout, or their main analytical membrane, he should go down to the dugout," Maddon said.
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"That’s something that should be done. Because they try to work this middle man kind of a thing. And what happens is when the performance isn’t what they think it should be, it’s never about the acquisitional process. It’s always about the inability of coaches and managers to get the best out of a player. And that’s where this tremendous disconnect is formed."
In his 19 seasons as a manager at the big league level, Maddon has compiled a record of 1,382-1,216, steering the Chicago Cubs to a World Series title in 2016, the organization's first championship in more than 100 years.