The Los Angeles Angels are making a drastic change amid their horrific losing streak of late.
The Angels announced Tuesday that manager Joe Maddon has been fired. Third base coach Phil Nevin will be taking over as interim manager.
The former World Series champion Maddon was in his third season leading the Angels. He had gone 130-148 (.468) over that span and failed to reach the postseason with the team, despite having Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani (who won AL MVP in 2021) on the roster.
While the firing of Maddon is a massive shake-up, it is also not really that surprising. The Angels, after starting the season 27-17, are nursing a ghastly 12-game losing streak that is still active. If the playoffs were to start today, they would once again fail to qualify, even with an added third Wild Card spot this season.
It felt like somebody had to take the fall for the Angels’ catastrophic last couple of weeks. In the end, that guy ends up being Maddon, who was drawing scrutiny even when the Angels were winning.
