Ron Washington Reveals Why He Left Kyren Paris Out of Angels Lineup Ahead of Off Day

The Los Angeles Angels faced off against the San Francisco Giants in the rubber match of the series Sunday without Kyren Paris in the lineup.

After a three strikeout performance in the team's loss the night prior, manager Ron Washington spoke on the decision to sideline the young second baseman.

“He’s been doing so good, and I don’t want him to fall too far down and then it becomes mental,” Washington said. “So I watched him yesterday, and I said, You know what? I’m just gonna give him a mental day.’ And now he gets one today, he gets one tomorrow (a scheduled off day), we come back Tuesday and start all over again.

“We’ve got to take care of that kid. I don’t ever want him to not have the confidence that he has right now. So I just felt like today was a day that I can just give him a mental break and then come back Tuesday and start it all over.”

The decision for the 23-year-old to sit seems to be with his best interest at heart after a red-hot start to 2025 quickly cooled down in recent games.

Paris' first 10 games included fiive home runs, eight RBIs, four stolen bases, and batting .440 with 11 hits in 25 at-bats. In his last nine outings, Paris has just four hits, 13 strikeouts, and is hitting .148 in 27 at-bats.

In the majors, confidence can be everything at times, and after adjusting his swing this offseason, Paris started 2025 off with all the confidence in the world.

His .288 average this season is still leaps and bounds better than his combined .110 average over 36 career MLB games before 2025, but his manager knows that a few more adjustments are still to be made.

“You’ve got to realize, he’s young. He doesn’t have a whole lot of experience," said Washington. "He’s been successful the way he’s been going at it, and now he’s beginning to understand the game is about adjusting and readjusting, adjusting and readjusting, adjusting and readjusting.”

Paris had a phenomenal start to a season where not many expected him to blossom as quickly as he did, but like his skipper said, there will always be more tweaks and improvements to make to get back to that place.

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