Former manager Joe Maddon: Angels can't keep focusing on 'bright, shiny objects'

It's been more than two months since the Los Angeles Angels fired Joe Maddon as manager in the midst of the team's worst ever losing streak. In the time since the firing, the Angels haven't got any better.

On Friday, Maddon told the Tampa Bay Times that he doesn't take joy in watching the Angels flounder in his absence, but he isn't sad about it either.

"It's like, once that happened, I dissolved my affiliation with them," Maddon told the Times. "There's no emotion anymore. There's no anything. It's like to me they don't even exist, organizationally.

"It doesn't make me feel better, it doesn't make me feel worse. Organizationally, I'm kind of numb to the whole thing. Because when you wish them badly, I'm wishing really good friends badly — and I can't do that."

The team was 27-29 when it made the change, and it's 25-38 since naming Phil Nevin as the interim manager. Despite his indifference about the organization, Maddon offered some thoughts on how the Angels can eventually turn things around.

"The infrastructure needs to be improved," Maddon said. "There's a lot of things that need to be improved there. These guys can't do it alone, obviously. It's the non-sexy stuff that has to get better. It's not just bright, shiny objects — they have that."

The shiniest toys in the Angels arsenal are reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani and three-time AL MVP Mike Trout. Those two players haven't been able to lead the team alone, though. The Angels are on track to miss the postseason for the eighth straight year and finish below .500 for the seventh year in a row.