Angels News: 2 players from 2025 team elect free agency, coaches officially dismissed

After the franchise's nadir in 2024, the Los Angeles Angels cleared out seemingly the entirety of the roster but kept every member of the coaching staff. As the organization emerges from a similarly woeful 2025 season, players are beginning to get shuffled out. However, the coaching staff is going to be entirely new under the team's new skipper.

Angels News: 2 players from 2025 team elect free agency, coaches officially dismissed

Let's start with the players -- Connor Brogdon and Carson Fulmer elected free agency after getting outrighted from the 40-man roster this week. Additionally, Sammy Peralta, Logan Davidson and Carter Kieboom were outrighted as well. Peralta was claimed off waivers by the Milwaukee Brewers, but Davidson and Kieboom cleared and were sent to Triple-A Salt Lake. We here at Halo Hangout predicted these moves earlier this month!

Both Brogdon and Fulmer had accrued enough service time to reject an outright Triple-A assignment and elect free agency. Brogdon was signed to a MiLB deal before last season, then became a stalwart of the bullpen despite having a down-year. Fulmer, who has previously been brought back following an outright, will be a free agent once again. Minasian clearly has taken a liking to Fulmer, so no Angels fan will be surprised if he is once again inked to a minor league deal at some point this winter.

On a different note, two Angels coaches have officially been removed from their roles -- pitching coach Barry Enright and hitting coach Johnny Washington will be brought back. Enright was sort of dealt a bad hand with the pitchers he needed to bring along, but the results the past two years speak for themself. The Angels' main issue amidst this playoff drought has always been preventing runs, and Enright did not provide enough progress in that regard. On the other hand, Washington had a relatively stacked group of position players and the wheels came off in a major way last year. The Angels had a tangible issue to fix last year: stop striking out. Washington could not stop his team from whiffing, and a historically high number of strikeouts last year did him in.

Others have been removed from their posts as well, but those names have not been made official yet. Plus, there's a chance some of those coaches could return in a different role next year. Minasian had previously allowed his coaches to find outside roles, as the calls he just made were inevitable. For example, Mike Gallego spent four years on the Angels MLB coaching staff, was dismissed after the 2022 season, but returned to the organization on the minor league player development side. The same might be true for bench and infield coach Ryan Goins, assistant pitching coach Sal Fasano, base coaches Eric Young Sr. and Bo Porter, bullpen coach Steve Karsay, offensive coordinator Tim Laker, catching coach Jerry Narron, assistant coach Jayson Nix, and others like Tim Buss, Jason Brown, Dylan Cintula, Mike Ashman and Manny Del Campo. Ray Montgomery is in this camp too, as he was removed as the interim manager but was offered a different role in the organization. Only time will tell if any of those coaches will return, which were fired, or which find jobs elsewhere.

The Angels are moving on from the Ron Washington regime, and beginning anew under Kurt Suzuki. Suzuki, who is on a one-year contract with several options, will attempt to build a staff despite uncertainty that Minasian or he will be brought back in 2027. That being said, a major league coaching job is a major league coaching job so the Angels should not find too much of an issue filling out their dugout and bullpen. Suzuki is known as a beloved figure in baseball, so Angels fans are anxiously awaiting to see if his popularity will allow the team to profit by bringing in marquee strategists and developers to bring along/prepare the players next season.