The Los Angeles Angels are becoming the West Coast Atlanta Braves.
Earlier in the offseason, Alex Anthopoulos traded Jorge Soler to the Angels, where he reunited with Ron Washington and Eric Young, who were hired away from Atlanta last offseason.
On Tuesday, Travis d’Arnaud signed a two-year, $12 million deal in free agency after the Braves declined his $8 million option, and within hours, news broke that Sal Fasano was joining Washington’s staff as an assistant pitching coach.
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1856443689259937932
This all makes sense when you consider Perry Minasian, the Angels GM, is a former member of the Braves front office. He spent four seasons in Atlanta as assistant GM and has been in LA since 2020, which is ironically right before Anthopoulos put together the World Series club.
Ron Washington leaving last offseason was difficult for Braves fans, but certainly not as difficult as the Angels season was. Wash and EY led the club to a 63-99 record and a fifth-place finish in the AL West.
You can’t really blame them, though. Expectations weren’t high to begin with, given Shohei Ohtani’s departure across the town. Moreover, Mike Trout was limited to 29 games with a torn meniscus in his left knee, and the rest of the lineup, outside of a few bats, was as bad as money can buy. Anthony Rendon continued his downward trend and was (again) limited by injuries.
The former Braves players, coaches, and executives have a lot of work to do, and it’s going to be a multi-year rebuild. However, the Angels could do a lot worse than picking up the Braves’ scraps. At the very least, Ron Washington can start building his culture in the clubhouse, which has long been an issue for the other team in Los Angeles.
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Photographer: Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire
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