Ron Washington takes parting shot at the Angels after unceremonious dismissal

Ron Washington is not taking the news that the Angels are not picking up his club option well, based on his recent interview with Sam Blum of The Athletic. In his recent interview with Blum, Washington discussed the rigors of being the Angels manager despite the organization having all the makings of what should be a successfully-run ball club (big market, being in SoCal, having Mike Trout, etc.).

Ron Washington takes parting shot at the Angels after unceremonious dismissal

“You know, when you’re a competitor, and you’re in charge, none of that stuff comes into play,” Washington said to Blum. “Sometimes you’ve got to make chicken salad out of chicken s—.” To provide some context, Blum led into the quote by stating that the Angels were out-performing previous expectations that the 2025 Angels were going to be one of the worst teams in baseball at the time Washington needed to step away from the team. Essentially, Washington affirmed that he was dealt a bad hand with the roster and the team needed to ignore the outside noise and just do their thing.

Taking this slightly out of context feels like a direct shot at Arte Moreno and Perry Minasian, but even in context it is a candid assessment of what Washington had to deal with. Going 36-38 with the roster he was given, especially since Zach Neto missed the first month of the season and Mike Trout missed all but two games in May, felt like a miracle. The organization, as it has for a decade now, lacks prospect depth, pitching depth, and position player depth. The highest-paid players on the team rarely play baseball games anymore. However, the Angels were absolutely belting home runs at an insane rate at that point, and the vibes were strong in the clubhouse when Washington was present in 2025.

During the 2024 season, Washington made several comments that eluded to the players on the roster not being up-to-snuff. In May of last year, Washington said: "Well, we got this far without him (Robert Stephenson), so we’re going to have to figure it out. Hopefully, the people up top that make the decisions continue to look around and get us some help. I know we’re supposed to get Stephenson back at some point this year, but it’d be nice if they can find us some more help.”

That September, Washington said (and later walked back): "We forgot to bring real baseball players into the organization. Nothing against those guys here, but they’re not big-league baseball players and they certainly can’t help us win a championship.”

So yes, Washington clearly was not satisfied with the jobs Moreno and Minasian did to provide him with high-caliber talent, so him reiterating that to Blum was not the first time he's criticized the Angels.

No one is going to blame Wash for taking the news a little strongly, as he was basically removed from his post largely due to his age and health concerns -- even though the club (via Perry Minasian) stated that his dismissal was not due to Washington needing to undergo quadruple bypass heart surgery a few months ago. The Angels can say that's not the case, but it does feel like that is certainly the case. Bringing back the oldest manager in the league coming off of that surgery did not feel like the most stable situation for anyone involved.

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