The Los Angeles Angels announced on Tuesday afternoon that they have fired their manager, Joe Maddon, after two-plus seasons at the helm.
Phil Nevin will take over as interim manager.
The Angels have been in an absolute freefall after starting the 2022 season 27-17, losing each of their last 12 games. They dropped from second place in the AL West and just one game out of first to 8.5 games out.
It was just the latest disappointment of Maddon’s tenure as the team’s skipper considering he was not able to steer them to the lofty expectations that come with having two of the top players — Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani — in the game.
Los Angeles went 26-34 during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign before similarly finishing eight games under .500 again in 2021 (77-85), doing so without Trout due to a calf injury that limited him to just 36 games.
Despite having one of the largest payrolls in baseball, the Angels haven’t made the playoffs since 2014 and haven’t won a playoff series since 2009.
Maddon was originally viewed as the man to help break that drought and make them competitors in a difficult AL West headlined by the Houston Astros. It was the 68-year-old who managed the Chicago Cubs’ bench when they broke a 108-year World Series drought in 2016.
He also helped navigate the Tampa Bay Rays to respectability, winning the franchise’s first-ever American League pennant in 2008.
Over his 19 years of managing, Maddon holds a 1,382-1,216 record with two pennants and that 2016 World Series title.
Nevin, who played 12 years in MLB — most notably with the San Diego Padres — will get his first crack at managing after previously working as a coach with the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees.
He joined Maddon’s staff in Los Angeles this season.
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