ANAHEIM — After he missed the past week because of an undisclosed medical issue, the Angels on Friday announced that Manager Ron Washington will miss the remainder of the season.
Saying Washington is in good spirits and communicating with the front office multiple times a day, the oldest manager in the major leagues at 73 will slow down his hectic schedule after undergoing a battery of medical exams over the past week.
During a June 15-19 series against the Yankees in New York, Washington began to experience shortness of breath and overall fatigue. He agreed to step aside to undergo medical testing while bench coach Ray Montgomery took over as interim manager starting with last Friday’s game against the Houston Astros.
“He understands what needs to be done (but) I’m not going to go into details; that’s for him to tell if he decides to,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said before Friday’s game against the Washington Nationals. “But for me, I’m excited for him to do what he needs to do. Forget about the baseball stuff, just get healthy because he’s a great human being. And anybody that’s around him on a daily basis, he’s somebody that you want around, right? So we’re going to miss him.”
Montgomery will continue to be the team’s interim manager after he led the club to a 4-2 record over the past week, including a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox. Infield coach Ryan Goins will be moved into the bench coach role.
Minasian said the team is not planning to add to the coaching staff for now.
The players were updated on Washington’s status during a clubhouse meeting Friday afternoon.
“It’s more than baseball when you hear the news,” catcher Logan O’Hoppe said. “You want to think of the advice he gives you when you’re not feeling so good and can’t play. And we just hope he’s healthy and getting better. I hope this isn’t taken the wrong way, but we don’t care about any of the baseball side of it right now. We hope he’s alright and gets the help he needs.”
With a roster that was trending younger, Washington was brought on board before last season in something of a surprise hire after the team declined to pick up the contract option for previous manager Phil Nevin.
It was a curious partnership, but young players like O’Hoppe, Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel and Jo Adell took to Washington’s folksy approach and boundless energy. Washington proved to be a hands-on manager, immediately instituting an early-morning infield clinic every day during spring training.
Neto and Washington took to each other immediately, despite a nearly 50-year age difference.
“He got me when I was fresh in my first full year,” Neto said. “And I’ve learned a lot. It’s been a lot of ups and downs, but a lot of learning lessons in between those, and just being able to become a man, owning up to my mistakes and just be able to flush it and keep moving on. And I think it’s definitely helped me, especially to where I am today.”
Minasian hired Washington with the hopes that his emphasis on fundamentals, with a no-nonsense style and a penchant for constructive criticism would be a solid fit. After setting a franchise record for losses with a 63-99 season last year, the Angels are 40-40 and have series sweeps over the Dodgers, Red Sox and Athletics (twice) since May 16.
“Doesn’t take any days off, just comes in ready to work,” veteran Mike Trout said of Washington. “He loves his infield work, as you know. But it’s tough to hear news like this. This is bigger than baseball. He’s got to go out there and get things right. And everybody in this clubhouse is praying for him and thinking about him.”
Without getting into details, Minasian said Washington has a solid health prognosis moving forward.
“He’s in good spirits,” Minasian said. “I think there’s peace of mind when you know what you need to get done, right, and when you know what you need to do for him. So we’ve gotten a lot of answers to a lot of questions.”
As for returning to manage the Angels next season, Minasian said “I’m just worried about today.” Washington is in the final year of his original two-year deal. He is 664-611 in 10 seasons as a major league manager, eight with the Texas Rangers and two with the Angels.
He led the Rangers to back-to-back World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011 before stepping down abruptly in September 2014. Washington returned to the sport as a coach with the the then-Oakland A’s and the Atlanta Braves, who won the World Series in 2021, before landing a second managerial job with the Angels.
“You see players in teams take the personality of the manager, and I believe this team has done that this season,” Minasian said. “We’ve been through some ups and downs. We keep fighting every night. It’s a resilient bunch. We play to last out as hard as possible. A majority of credit to that should go to Ron, what he’s instituted here, and what he preaches on a daily basis.”
Montgomery’s opportunity to manage for the first time has not come under ideal circumstances, with his goal of transitioning as seamlessly as possible from Washington’s leadership to his own style.
“I’m looking at it as we have a game to play today,” Montgomery said. “A week ago, when this started, we had the same mindset, and nothing’s really changed. And again, relative to what I was doing prior, it’s a lot of the same stuff. (Goins) just has to learn some of it.”
Minasian added Montgomery as bench coach when he took over as the GM in 2021 and he served in the role under Joe Maddon, Nevin. Now he takes over for Washington, while trying to retain the same ideals and structure.
“In my opinion, and I think a lot of people’s opinion, the game of baseball is 1,000 times better when Ron Washington’s a part of it on a daily basis,” Minasian said. “I think we all know that. So obviously, on that end, it’s unfortunate. The fortunate part is he knows what he needs to do and from a health standpoint, he knows how to get better.”
Said O’Hoppe: “More than the baseball side of it, just having a human like (Washington) around is huge. We’re going to miss his presence, but knowing him, he’ll be crawling into this place in a couple days. So I’m sure it won’t be too long.”