Joe Maddon Fired As Los Angeles Angels Manager

The Los Angeles Angels Tuesday afternoon fired manager Joe Maddon, the team announced. Phil Nevin replaced Maddon as interim manager.

He’s the second manager fired in less than a week after Joe Girardi was fired on Thursday.

The Angels have lost 12 games in a row, the large reason behind the 68-year-old’s firing. After starting the season 27-17 and spending time in first place in the American League West, the Angels are now two games under .500 and 8.5 games behind the Houston Astros for first place.

After stints with the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs (with whom he won a World Series in 2016), ahead of the 2020 season, Maddon became the manager of the Angels, the team he spent the first 30 years of his professional career with. Seen as a team that hadn’t capitalized Mike Trout‘s talents over the previous half-decade-plus, the team brought in Maddon after yet another disappointing season in 2019, this time with Brad Ausmus at the helm.

Nevertheless, Maddon’s teams never finished above .500, even with the infusion of a fully healthy Shohei Ohtani come 2021. (That year, of course, Trout and Anthony Rendon both suffered through injuries.) The team looked like it finally put it together this season with improved pitching, a fully healthy offense and the emergence of some prospects who finally put it together.

Their last win came May 24 against the Texas Rangers. Over their 12-game losing streak, they’ve scored just 2.9 runs per game while giving up 6.5 runs per game. The team plays two more games against the Boston Red Sox Tuesday and Wednesday, then the Mets come into town over the weekend.

In an interview with The Athletic, Maddon said that his firing surprised him “a lot,” but he also called it “liberating.” He also said he still wants to manage.

Maddon finished his Angels tenure with a 103-119 record.