Ron Washington addresses his brutal quote about Angels players

Mar 6, 2024; Mesa, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington watches warm ups before a game at Sloan Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington is trying to walk back some critical comments he made about his own players.

In an interview with Anthony De Leon of the Los Angeles Times posted Wednesday, Washington offered some brutal comments about the team’s current roster. The Angels manager said the organization “forgot to bring real baseball players” into the system, a situation that would be rectified in the coming offseason. He also added that while he is not trying to criticize the current stock of players, his current roster is composed of players that are “not big-league baseball players and they certainly can’t help us win a championship.”

Those remarks raised some questions, and Washington tried to clean them up on Thursday. He told Sam Blum of The Athletic that he “misspoke,” and that he instead meant that the organization gave him players that needed to grow into big leaguers.

Ron Washington made this notable comment to the @latimes, in a story posted yesterday.

Today he said, "I misspoke. I didn't mean it the way it came out, where I'm saying the organization isn't giving me big league players. It's players that have to grow into big league players." pic.twitter.com/93V8VAHPUv

— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) September 26, 2024

“I didn’t mean it the way it came out, where I’m saying the organization isn’t giving me big league players,” Washington said. “It’s players that have to grow into big league players.”

Washington’s clarification may not be all that much better, but many Angels fans would probably agree with him. The manager is largely addressing moves that were made before he was hired last offseason, which left the club with a bad MLB roster and a weak farm system that will need to be rebuilt. The situation has been hindered by Mike Trout spending most of the season injured.

The Angels were just swept by the lowly Chicago White Sox, and have looked totally incompetent at various points this season. Washington’s comments may not be great to read publicly, but it’s tough to argue with them.