‘We Need Some Dogs Here’: Will LA Angels Give Manager Ron Washington A Chance to Deliver?

The Los Angeles Angels and Ron Washington, if given the time, could be a match made in heaven. The Angels are considered one of the worst franchises in baseball with the light at the end of the tunnel being a possible oncoming train with superstar Shohei Ohtani in Dodger blue and Mike Trout out with injury. To add insult to injury…

 

• The team has not had a winning season since 2015.
• The nearest threat to first place in their division was in the pandemic season back in 2020. Even then, they were ten games behind.
• In 2024, they hired Ron Washington as their third manager in three years.

 

The Angels will not get a baseball savant better than Washington to make the transition overhaul in the next couple of seasons. Ron Washington may be the only person in baseball qualified for such an undertaking.

 

• A winning percentage of .520 over 1,275 games coming into this season.
• Four straight 90-plus winning seasons.
• Consecutive American League pennants in 2010 and 2011.

 

Ron Washington Is The Winningest Manager In Texas Rangers History 

 

The narrative where Ron Washington can be undermined as a manager is the style of communication between eras. Washington is old school, direct and very blunt. The modern players in all sports have increasingly bristled at that type of communication. He’s also a font of knowledge who has worked as a bench coach, most recently with the Atlanta Braves’ World Series team, and is renowned for his defensive tutelage of infielders.

 

Possible Culture Clash With 72-Year-Old Manager? 

 

The first chapter of this potential conflict played out earlier this week on Tuesday night when the Angels lost 7-6 to the St. Louis Cardinals. In the postgame press conference, our MLBbro OG did not pull punches over suggestions (or excuses) about Luis Guillorme’s failed squeeze bunt attempt that ended a potential game-winning scoring chance in the 8th inning.

 

 

Ron Washington’s comments after the game via The New York Post:

 

 

“Lefty on lefty, and with a sinkerballer on a left-hander, I didn’t want him to hit into a double play,” Washington explained after he was asked why he called for the squeeze. “He can handle the bat. He didn’t do the job. It wasn’t anything I did wrong. He didn’t do the job.”

 

When a reporter asked about JoJo Romero’s control difficulties…

 

“Wild? He was throwing it in the strike zone,” Washington said. “Why are you making excuses? He was throwing the ball in the strike zone. [Guillorme] did not get the bunt down. Period.”

Guillorme for the record stated that he had to do a better job of getting the bat on the ball in that type of situation in the future.

 

Are the Angels bad in reputation and perception? Yes. But this is not an Oakland A’s team who lost 112 games last year and may repeat the feat this season. This is not a Chicago White Sox team who can’t (or won’t) compete financially with the sudden boom of free agent contracts. The other Los Angeles team has resources and assets to move to build around a star in Mike Trout.

 

Ron Washington Hired To Change Losing Culture

 

Ron Washington was hired to bring championship habits to a team by developing discipline by way of routine and a focus on the little things required to win as opposed to cliches spoken behind a microphone. He also has first base coach Bo Porter at his disposal. Porter set the foundation of the Astros’ 2017 World Championship and the current core players they have today, enduring losing seasons as Astros manager before the team’s prospects such as Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa blossomed.

 

The organization chose him to oversee a rebuild and then ushered him out for A.J. Hinch, before he was able to finish the job. So we do know Porter is also equipped to re-establish a culture.

 

To the ones that thought Washington was wrong for calling out his player… tough! He’s bringing a championship mentality from the Atlanta Braves.

 

Our MLBbro manager via ESPN before the season:

 

“We need some dogs here,” Washington says. “This isn’t a country club. In Atlanta, those guys battled. They were hungry. They were coming to beat your ass. And if they lost, they were mad. You knew they were coming in hungrier. It only took a day – not four or five days – for those guys to reset and dedicate themselves to kicking your ass.”

It didn’t take long to find out Ron Washington was serious. The question is… are the Los Angeles Angels and their fanbase serious, too?