9:22AM: “A deal is not imminent” between Maddon and the Angels, Maria Torres of the L.A. Times writes (Twitter link), as details are “still being worked out.” Likewise, Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group hears from a source that the team is “working on it.”
8:39AM: The Angels are closing in on an agreement to bring aboard Joe Maddon as the team’s manager, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). It’s expected to be a three-year pact that pays Maddon in the realm of $12MM to $15MM, as per ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers (Twitter link).
If indeed a pact is completed, it’d be the first domino to fall in a busy winter of managerial movement. And it would bring the Halos an experienced and long-lauded new dugout leader to help flip the script after yet another disappointing campaign.
Maddon just wrapped up a successful stint with the Cubs. He led the Chicago organization to the promised land, finally bringing a championship to Wrigley in 2016, though the good vibes faded a bit in his final year at the helm. Maddon finished with a 471-339 record in his five seasons in Chicago, reaching the postseason four times.
This match has made sense on paper ever since it became clear that Maddon wasn’t coming back to the Cubs, and speculation grew even heavier once the Halos fired manager Brad Ausmus after just one season. Maddon has a long history with the Angels, having spent more than three decades with the organization earlier in his career.
Yes please….and thank you. Make this happen…
We knew that Maddon was going to pick the Angels.
Like the 85 Bears, all that talent and only 1 championship to show for it
Good deal.
Be careful what you wish for, lol. The Cubs should have kept Davey Martinez and let Joe walk. And without a doubt, Tampa Bay sure hasn’t shown any signs of missing him.
Joe is all smoke and mirrors. He does not have the ability to gain serious focus from his players, once the initial honeymoon is over.
Angel will suck just like they have for years. They sign the wrong people and then wonder why they are on IL list. They only want to make money and they are right where they will be next year at this time.
Here we go again these baseball experts so desperate for Angels to be good they will pick them in the AL west even though Astros and A’s are in the same division both young powerful teams. Only way Angels can improve if they sign Cole. Anything less and its still a under .500 team.
Agreed..Angels need pitching to succeed.
You mean the guy that broke 107 year curse of no World Series? Yeah sounds like smoke and mirrors to me and this is coming from a Yankee fan
Ooohhhhh Jesus Chwist this is exciting
Upgrade over Ausmus but he can’t pitch.
I bet Joe will tell you he could pitch.
Maybe he will lift the injury curse for the organization.
Everyone will be diagnosed with plantar fasciitis.
Figures….. he played them as much as he could. Typical Joe. He’ll wear thin in a few years.
How did Maddon “play them”
I guess he played them for over thirty years… gosh…
Shocker of the year……………NOT!!!!!!!! Haha!!!!!
good choice by the angels the angels need some starting pitching
Look stop mentioning pitching when we all know we can’t sign anyone yet. Moreno would be smart to sign Cole and then Strasbourg. We would be set for the next 3 to 5 years and everyone is happy.
Put down the pipe.
At least be able to spell Strasburg correctly….
If you are in Strasbourg, it is spelled correctly.
It is, however, more likely that the Angels will sign the pitcher than it is they sign the entire town…
Hope for Cole *or* Strasburg, but not both. No team is going to allocate $60M just for two SP. If Strasburg opts out, he’s walking away from 100M/4 years, so he would be looking for the same $30M/yr neighborhood as Cole. Boras represents both, so there is no way to play one player off the other in offering contracts.
Except that would cost the Angels probably somewhere between 60-70 million to have both pitchers each year.
I’ve heard Moreno has some deep pockets, but that would be absurd.
Gunnar, it’s not gonna happen dude.
Manager won’t save all though. We need more pitching!
Got a good one.
Now sign Cole, Wacha and trade with Rockies for bullpen help.
Wouldn’t be a bad idea to sign Nova 1/8m
I really don’t see the angels getting Cole unless they are the highest bitter by a large margin. I’ve noticed something about the history of the Angels they always strike out on top starting free agents not sure what it is maybe it’s the ball park and there were times they were the highest bidder I see this being a two team race with the Astros and Yankees unless the reports are true and the Astros in an attempt to get under the luxury tax will not make an offer in which case do not be surprised if the Dodgers jump in. As far as this managing hire I’m not sure if he is the right guy especially with analytics being what it is today there was a main reason why the Cubs moved on from him and something tells me the angels will have the same problem Chicago dead trying to get him on board with modern-day baseball managing.
I agree with you and your history of the Angels, but I think they get Cole. According to all accounts he wants to go home to California and grew up a nine-iron away from Angel Stadium. Angels have the money and the need.
If you look at the other contenders it’s…
Dodgers: I don’t see it, as they have yet to sign any player to $100 million contracts, let alone $200+ million. Could be a dark horse though.
Padres: I don’t think they will spend that much after the last two free-agent singings. I could see them trading for an ace with their plethora of prospects.
Giants: In my opinion, they are a year or two away from dipping big into free agency again. They’ll rely on Shark and Cueto next year. Maybe they get Bum back, but I don’t see it.
A’s: Yeah, right. Good one.
angels have better pen than the rockies do. just not as well known names.
@Vizionaire Agreed. The Rockies bullpen is a mess with bad contracts. If anything, the Rockies should be looking to acquire Angels bullpen pieces.
That was just an odd comment earlier.
Good luck to the angels, they’re now stuck with an overrated pompous jerk.
Maddon will be in the hall of fame one day but sure he must be overrated because you do not like him?
paulie—too late but you should have spent a lot of time on the cubs team website listening to his pre and post game conferences. Certainly nowhere near overrated. Pompous? Maybe—but when you know as much as he does and has accomplished what he has—there’s just a little bit of “ok” in puffing the chest.
Here’s his (and the Cubs) main problem over the past few years—that organization is so visible, transparent, and attainable that everything is under a microscope. Everything. And, of course, there are about 351,492 experts here and online somewhere that know so much more than them—it’s hard to for those future Hall of Famers to get something by the public.
Would love to see the Angels make a playoff run soon. The world needs to see what Mike Trout can do in the playoffs, and i have no doubt that his game would be elevated more…if thats humanly possible.
As a baseball fan, i just hope this is the beginning of getting the Angels into true playoff contention so we can see Mike trout
its so bad for the sport that Trout is a non factor come October. Hes a once in a generational talent like Lebron is to the NBA. Imagine if Lebron never made the playoffs with his talent. would be awful for the sport.
Trout has zero charisma and nobody outside of LA cares about him whatsoever. He’s great but a nonfactor in the sport’s popularity because he’s not marketable.
Gee, and all this time I thought “athletic ability” was more attractive to baseball fans than “marketability.”
Harper has it backwards. Big superstar name…doesnt get it done.
I’ll disagree. Trout is one of the nicest guys in the game. Just go on YouTube and you can see how he interacts with kids. He, if anything, is overly nice and generous. Watching him play is a treat. MLB needs to market players like him. Frankly, I’m not sure who they are marketing if anyone.
You can say he doesn’t garnish enough attention because he doesn’t charge the mound or have crazy hair like Harper. I think the real reason is the Angels are an annually an irrelevant team with little history on the big stage. He certainly doesn’t get into nationwide broadcasts and has been to the playoffs once when he was a whole lot younger. Get him to a World Series and let the world see him for once.
The issue is Trout doesnt seem to care about being the face of MLB. hes not a huge camera guy like Harper is. Hes a more quiet/humble dude and theres nothing wrong with that. In fact, its more admirable to see that from an athlete.
@ReverieDays Someone forgot to share your insight with Nike.
Joe Maddon wins ball games. He would make the AL West even more competitive with owner support.. Maybe bring Oakland down, Rangers are out of it until Jon Daniels leaves and Seattle is neck and neck with the Rangers at the bottom.
Maddon is a clear line back to the World Series, so that’s a nice hook. However, both parties are anxious to see what the Skaggs investigation will turn up. All indications are that the Angels will get some punishment and that could affect most, if not all, years of the contract.
it will be some fines and draft picks. hopefully!
Angels also to lose free agents, I believe it to be international but could be more. Look for more than Atlanta got that was no international for 5 years.
Have you bothered to read MLB’s rules on this? The only punishments would be fines and potentially banning people who may have kept the information from MLB. MLB has never taken away picks or made players FA’s when faced with drug issues — they didn’t with the 1985 Pirates scandal and they didn’t witht he Dodgers when they had guys doing lines in the bullpen.
Scary to think he is going to walk in to an organization with the best player in baseball locked in as his franchise player for the next several years. This is going to take a year or two but the Angels will be a force to be reckoned with.
They will be a force this year with Maddon at the helm
Let’s work on a deal over lunch. Who wants Chinese food?
it’s Heyman, I’d wait before getting too excited.
I’ve long wanted Maddon, especially during the last 6-7 years of Sosh. He’s not perfect, but I’m happy.
Now let’s get him some pitching talent to manage because nobody could have taken last year’s rotation anywhere.
At least he’s on the West Coast so when his in-game strategy drags out the game 45 minutes longer than anyone else, there’s a 90% chance I won’t be paying attention
Joe, watch out!
Due diligence is needed before you jump into this potential narcotics nest.
DEA looking into more players potentially tangential to the death of Tyler Skaggs.
‘former players’ must have not registered in your mind.
Good,glad he’s going to a team I don’t care about
As a mets fan, the nats are just palying to their potential thats all, theyve laways had the talent. theyve put it all together, theyre dominating every fascet of the game.and davey is pushing all the right buttons.
im rooting for them to win it all this year, its great for the sport to have every team win championships. the yankees have too many and the astros alredy won theirs so yeah ill be cheerin the nats on, no sense in being a hater.
other mets fan will probably bury me but idc im a baseball fan first.
As a baked potato fan, i agree, but wrong article bud
I love how Torres is almost always wrong… 9:22: “Not Imminent” …. 10:03: “Angels to Hire Maddon”… LA Times doing great
Obviously Maria Torrez was out of the loop.
I guess Maria Torres needs to find reliable sources in the Angels organization. This ““A deal is not imminent” between Maddon and the Angels, Maria Torres of the L.A. Times writes (Twitter link)” just an hour or so before the Angels announced Maddon’s hiring, tells me that she is feeding off the MLB website or some place else, not the Angels office. Sports journalists need to be-on-the-beat, ask, call, confront key people, and confirm info with two different sources before publishing anything….
Not the first time she’s been wrong. Not going to be the last, either
Maddon will help the Angels be legit contenders again. They definitely need help in their rotation and bullpen. If they get the results on the pitching staff, I could see them being an AL WC holder.