Between his playing career as a minor-league catcher and a quarter century of scouting and coaching experience culminating in a short-lived managerial stint from 2020-22, Joe Maddon has spent most of his adult life as an Angel. But after being scapegoated as the flat tire on a car that was veering into traffic long before he got there, the former Rays and Cubs skipper has washed his hands of the Angels, disavowing any allegiance he once had to the organization that, for better or worse, shaped his career.
“It’s like, once that happened, I dissolved my affiliation with them,” said Maddon, still bitter over how his tumultuous Angels tenure ended. “There’s no emotion anymore. There’s no anything. It’s like to me they don’t even exist, organizationally.”
While he won’t go as far as to root against his former players, many of whom he’s still close to, clearly, there’s no love lost between Maddon and the team that fed him to the wolves amid a 12-game losing streak, offering him as a human sacrifice to an unforgiving baseball deity.
“There’s a lot of things that need to be improved there. 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,” Maddon expressed to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. “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.”
The Angels have only gotten worse since Maddon’s firing (25-41 under interim manager Phil Nevin), with rumors Shohei Ohtani may be plotting an escape after having his prime years squandered by a rudderless franchise that, as alluded to by owner Arte Moreno, could soon be on the market. Maddon believes that dysfunction begins and ends in the front office, lamenting meddling executives who made it hard for him to run his team.
“The manager has so many voices in the back of his head, by the time the game begins, it’s not his game like it had been. It’s absolutely the front office’s game,” said Maddon, critical not just of the Angels but of how all front offices arrive at their decisions, taking a reactionary approach that he sees as counterintuitive. “It’s at the point where some GMs should really just put a uniform on and go down to the dugout.”
“It isn’t just an issue in Anaheim,” said Maddon, imploring teams to see the forest for the trees, trusting the process instead of always playing the result. “You can’t just shut it down because you go through a losing streak.”
Angels fans would probably dismiss most of Maddon’s sentiment as sour grapes, lashing out after being scorned by the team and city he once loved. Still, it’s hard to see the Angels as anything other than a disappointment, a failed experiment that, if Moreno sells his controlling share in the team, could soon be coming to an end.
Related
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram