The Los Angeles Angels are looking for a manager after deciding to part ways with Ron Washington. Los Angeles has interviewed former Major League Baseball player Albert Pujols for the job, per USA Today. Pujols is eager to land a job managing a MLB team.
“For me, I’ve always been serious about everything that I do in this game,” Pujols told USA Today in March, “and now I’m serious about managing. This game has done so much for me, and now, I want to give back.
“I’m ready.”
The Angels have the longest current MLB playoffs drought. It's been more than a decade since Los Angeles made the postseason. The club just finished the 2025 season with a 72-90 record.
Angels are hoping to hit a home run with their next manager
The Angels chose to move on from Ron Washington, despite a promising start to the 2025 season. Washington had health issues he had to address. He said he hoped to keep managing the team.
“You know, when you're a competitor, and you're in charge, none of that stuff comes into play,” Washington said, per The Athletic. “Sometimes you've got to make chicken salad out of chicken s—.
“I have to accept that. I can't go back to argue with them to try and tell them different when they've made a decision. … We were starting to perform better.”
The next manager will have a job to do with rebuilding Los Angeles. The Angels have struggled for years, even despite having Shohei Ohtani for years. It was a tough blow to lose Ohtani in free agency, before the 2024 season.
“This is a huge hire,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said, per MLB.com. “We need to nail it, can't miss it. There's so many different qualities you look for, right? You obviously want somebody that understands people, understands the game, has a presence, there's respect. I can name 5,000 qualities that you'd like to have but at the end of the day for this particular group we've got to nail this one.”
The general manager says he understands the fans' frustration.
“I'm worried about going forward, making the team better, obviously, hiring the right manager,” Minasian said. “There was some progress from last year to this year in the win column. Obviously not enough to go where we want to go. So we need to improve the team. And there's a multitude of ways to do that.”
Time will soon tell who gets the job.
