Player and Managerial moves, 2019

The Angels have hired Joe Maddon, late of the Cubs and Rays, to manage the team for the next three years. He spent 31 years in the Angels organization before leaving to manage in Tampa in 2006, so he’s familiar with the stadium, the owner, and the traffic patterns in Orange County.

Maddon, who was considered the favorite as soon as the Angels dismissed Brad Ausmus a day after the regular season, won the job over candidates Buck Showalter, John Farrell and Johnny Washington. The four candidates were all interviewed last week.

20 thoughts on “Player and Managerial moves, 2019

  1. Did you know this?

    “Each MLB game has at least two authenticators on-site and those numbers go up for postseason games, which could have three or four.”

    It’s from an NBC story explaining how MLB artifact authentication works.

    • I doubt it. It would clog up the other infield positions – what to do, then, with Seager, Lux, Muncy, Taylor, Hernández, etc., not to mention the upcoming Jeter Downs? I suspect that after next year Turner will move toward the David Freese role.

    • I can see why this is going to be a contentious discussion:

      MLB wants MiLB to share in the increased costs that are going to come with increased player pay. In MLB’s view, there may be several ways to reach these goals, but their initial proposal is one path to those goals.

      “We have all the revenue, but you should pay our employees more.”

      • Better pay for minor leaguers would be an incentive to continue playing and, in the long run, would attract more young players and improve the quality.

        • MiLB players are horribly underpaid during the season and are NOT paid for spring training. MLB teams are their employers, not MILB teams. This appears to be a demand that the employers get kickbacks in order to give their employees raises. If I were an MiLB team owner I’d refuse just on principle.

  2. Honeycutt has moved to the front office effective immediately. Mark Prior will take over as pitching coach.

    He’s had back pain for the last four years. Fusion surgery solved a lot of it, but apparently not all.

  3. But is Maddon familiar with the drug problems? It might take all three years to straighten that out.