Former Angels manager lands bench coach job with the Yankees

The Los Angeles Angels made the interesting decision to hire Brad Ausmus to be their new manager for the 2019 season following Mike Scioscia's departure. Ausmus had gone through a bit of an up-and-down four-year tenure with the Tigers in which he had two good seasons and two horrific ones. Overall, he had a record of 314-332 as Tigers skipper.

Ausmus inherited a roster that had Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani (the hitter) on it and won just 72 games. Their 72-90 record came nowhere near expectations, but there were reasons to blame GM Billy Eppler for their failures more than Ausmus. Virtually every move Eppler made backfired, the rotation was a mess, and Trout had some injury issues as well.

While Ausmus wasn't great, it didn't feel like he had to be fired, especially after just one season. However, with Joe Maddon, one of the best managers in the sport at the time available, it did make sense to have the Angels do what the Cubs just did with Craig Counsell and fire Ausmus to land Maddon.

Ausmus spent the 2022 season as the Athletics bench coach but that's the only season in which he has been in a dugout since the Angels firing. That will now change with the 54-year-old landing the Yankees bench coach job.

Former LA Angels manager Brad Ausmus is back in a dugout after landing the Yankees bench coach job

The New York Mets wound up agreeing to terms with Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza to be their new manager. This left the bench coach spot vacant for Ausmus to take.

Ausmus joins a Yankees team that underwhelmed possibly even more than the Angels did, going from what many thought was a legitimate World Series contender to a team that finished 82-80 and missing the playoffs.

Ausmus will join Aaron Boone in the Yankees dugout as he attempts to potentially land a managerial job sometime in the not-too-distant future. The Angels have yet to announce their bench coach on new manager Ron Washington's staff. Ausmus on the surface probably would have made some sense, but due to what transpired in 2019 that obviously wasn't going to happen.