10:10am: The Angels have confirmed that Maddux will be their new pitching coach, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.
9:38am: Pitching coach Mike Maddux won’t return to the Rangers in 2026 and will instead be hired to new Angels manager Kurt Suzuki’s staff in Anaheim, reports Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports. It’s expected to be a one-year deal. The Angels haven’t formally announced the hiring, but Wilson adds that the Rangers have confirmed they were unable to reach a new deal with Maddux. Texas granted its division rival permission to speak to Maddux but also made an offer to retain him even after the Halos had inquired about his availability, per the report.
Rangers president of baseball ops Chris Young tells Wilson that his club is “forever grateful” to Maddux, who “played a major role” on the team’s first-ever World Series victory during the 2023 season and oversaw a dominant Texas pitching staff in 2025. Rangers starters led the majors with a 3.41 ERA this past season. Their bullpen’s collective 3.62 mark placed fifth in MLB despite being composed almost entirely of short-term free agent acquisitions from the prior offseason.
Following the season, Young expressed interest in retaining Maddux, whether in a new contract as pitching coach or another role within the organization. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News adds that the team indeed discussed alternative roles in addition to extending an offer to return as pitching coach. Instead, he’ll head west and join the fifth team of his lengthy coaching career.
Maddux, who turned 64 in August, had a 15-year career as a big league pitcher but has had an even more notable run as one of the most prolific pitching coaches in the league. He pitched for nine teams during his decade and a half in MLB, compiling a 4.05 ERA in 861 2/3 innings while working both as a starter and a reliever.
Lengthy as his career was, Maddux has now been a big league coach for an even longer stretch of time. He’s spent the past 23 seasons as a major league pitching coach, beginning with a six-year run in Milwaukee from 2003-08. Maddux then jumped to his first of two stints in Texas, spending the ’09-’15 seasons as pitching coach in Arlington, primarily under Ron Washington (who only just departed the Angels’ managerial role). That was followed by two years in D.C. as Nationals pitching coach and a five-year run in St. Louis. Maddux returned to the Rangers in 2023, Bochy’s first year on the job, and guided the staff en route to that year’s World Series championship.
Maddux will have a tough task ahead. The Angels don’t boast nearly the same level of pitching talent as their division rivals. Yusei Kikuchi and Jose Soriano are solid arms locked into the rotation, but the rest of the starting staff is a question mark. Former first-rounder and top prospect Reid Detmers will move back to a rotation role after a successful 2025 in the bullpen, and the Halos will hope that former top prospect Caden Dana can break through this season. Other rotation candidates include Mitch Farris, Sam Aldegheri and prospect George Klassen, but starting pitching figures to be a focus for GM Perry Minasian this winter.
In the bullpen, things are even shakier. Flamethrower Ben Joyce underwent shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in May. Robert Stephenson, the team’s big-ticket addition in free agency two winters ago, missed all of 2024 due to Tommy John surgery and pitched just 10 innings late in the ’25 season. Lefty Brock Burke had a nice season, but closer Kenley Jansen is a free agent and the rest of the staff is lacking in both experience and sustained MLB success.
Of course, Maddux is one of many voices who’ll be working with the staff. The game has evolved in many ways since the pitching coach was the primary influence on a team’s staff. Maddux may be the lead voice for the group, but he’ll have assistant coaches, advance scouts and input from the team’s analytic department as well in trying to reshape a Halos staff that posted MLB’s third-worst ERA (4.89) in 2025.