The baseball world was hit with a bombshell of a story when Joe Maddon decided to speak up about his rocky 2022 season with the Angels.
Early in the year, the Angels sat at 27-17, and appeared to be one of baseball's best teams. But when they went on a 12-game losing streak, Maddon, who had managed the team since 2020, lost his job.
There wasn't much information on why Maddon was fired, but it appeared to be because of the team's slump. The news, however, did come as a bit of a surprise, as the team was just two games under .500, and proved they could win just a few weeks prior.
As the season finally came to a close, Maddon wanted to share his side of the story — and it was truly eye-opening.
Maddon released The Book of Joe: Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life, a book he co-wrote with Sports Illustrated‘s Tom Verducci.
In the book, Maddon talked about an early-season dust up between him and Angels GM Perry Minasian.
The divide between old and new, manager and front office, data and art, Maddon and Minasian, reached a boiling point on May 9. The Angels had just scored five runs in the seventh inning against the Rays to turn a 6–3 lead into an 11–3 blowout. Ohtani hit a grand slam. The dugout was lively. Suddenly, head athletic trainer Mike Frostad walked up to Maddon at his usual perch on the top step of the dugout and said, “Perry just called down. He said get Trout out of the game.”
Earlier in the day Trout had complained about a bit of soreness in his groin. But later he told Maddon that the soreness dissipated, and he was fine.
To Maddon, Minasian broke a sacred code. The GM had called the dugout during a game to dictate strategy to the manager—a proven, veteran manager at that. To Minasian, he simply was deploying the power given to this generation of executives. Nothing was sacred. Nothing was out of bounds.
The next day Maddon blew up at Minasian in Maddon’s office. “Listen, don’t you ever f------ call down to the dugout again!” Maddon said.
Twenty-six days later, he was gone.
Maddon was fired when the team was 27-29. They finished the year 47-59, with intermin manager Phil Nevin at the helm.
Fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts on Maddon's comments.
It'll be interesting to see if Minasian or anyone else from the Angels speaks out in response to Maddon's comments.
But for now, their focus is solely on the offseason. They've already re-upped with Nevin for another year, and can now shift their focus to putting together a winning team for the first time since 2014.
As for Maddon, it'll be interesting to see if he gets another chance at a managerial gig, or if his time around the game of baseball is done.
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