Ron Washington Searching For Answers Among Second-Chance Players

It didn’t take long for the injury bug to strike the Los Angeles Angels. Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon, Luis Rengifo, Miguel Sanó, Robert Stephenson and more are players that the Angels came in to the season with and have all spent significant time on the injured list. Some of those — Rendon, Trout and Stephenson — are out indefinitely. So manager Ron Washington and company had to find a new path forward.

And when the Angels’ dismal organization depth was tested, Perry Minasian quickly had to look at other organizations. Since Opening Day, the Angels have brought in Amir Garrett, Cole Tucker, Kevin Pillar, Willie Calhoun, Luis Guillorme and Niko Goodrum into the mix. All of these players were cast aside by several organizations within the last year, but have found second-chance homes with the Angels.

Unfortunately, the Angels are relying on these players to have career renaissances just to keep the team afloat. And that’s the dilemma Washington discussed as that group becomes more integral to the team’s day-to-day operation, according to Sam Blum of The Athletic:

“We’re flying around. We’re just looking on the wires, seeing what’s out there,” manager Ron Washington said Friday. “And it’s who we come up with.”

“When you don’t have the people that you’re supposed to have, there’s a game on the schedule,” Washington said. “We can’t approach it that we can’t play baseball because we don’t have this guy, we don’t have that guy.

“We have to approach it that, the guys we have, they’re good enough to do what the game asks them to do.”

It’s a difficult position for any manager to be in. The Angels failed to address their depth issue after tying a franchise record with 66 players to be on the active roster in 2023. And it seems as though they are on pace to put up a similar number in 2024.

Even though players like Calhoun, Carson Fulmer and Guillorme have been solid in their short stints with the Angels — an excellent story for their career — it speaks very poorly on the work the Angels did this offseason. And as each game passes and more stopgap options are introduced, the Halos’ inactive offseason will come further under fire.

Ron Washington: Angels offense not putting themselves in good position

Washington spoke about the team’s dismal offensive output over the last couple weeks, saying that it’s hard to implement a strategy when players are not putting themselves in a position to score. But he is hopeful things will turn around as an inexperienced lineup spends more time alongside one another.