The Los Angeles Angels fired Joe Maddon on June 7 amid a lengthy losing streak. The team replaced Maddon with Phil Nevin, and they performed much worse after Maddon was canned.
Since losing his job, Maddon, 68, has collaborated with Tom Verducci on a new book called “The Book of Joe.” SI on Thursday published an excerpt from the book.
The excerpt illustrates Maddon’s view on the struggle between managers and front offices. According to Maddon, managers no longer think or act too independently. Rather, he says front offices control many roster decisions, including which relief pitchers are available on a day-to-day basis.
The micromanaging by the front office has made Maddon feel less and less valuable, and more and more like his territory — and what has made him successful — is being encroached upon.
The former Angels manager even shared a story of a conflict he had with Angels GM Perry Minasian.
According to Maddon, Minasian called down to the dugout after the Angels had broken open a May 9 game against the Rays. Once the Angels extended their lead from 6-3 to 11-3, Minasian called down to the dugout and told Maddon to remove Mike Trout from the game since Trout had complained of a groin issue prior to the game.
Trout played and later told Maddon the groin soreness had dissipated, but that didn’t matter to Minasian.
The next day, Maddon had a not-so-friendly message for Minasian when the two met in the manager’s office.
“Listen, don’t you ever f—— call down to the dugout again!” Maddon told Minasian.
A month later, Maddon was fired.
The Angels were in the middle of a 12-game losing streak when Maddon was fired. Still, the team had been so successful over the first two months under Maddon that even the big losing streak only made them 27-29.
The Angels lost two more games even after firing Maddon before ending their losing streak. They proceeded to go a much worse 46-60 under Nevin, completely tanking and even becoming trade-deadline sellers.
Minasian and Maddon might not have seen eye-to-eye, and Minasian might have felt the Angels needed a big change amid their losing streak. But the results showed that firing Maddon was a bad idea. Had they stayed the course, their fortunes likely would have turned, and they would have had a good shot at getting back over .500 rather than backsliding and going further in the wrong direction as they ended up doing.
H/T Barstool Sports
