The Los Angeles Angels announced that manager Phil Nevin will not have his contract renewed on Monday after finishing the season 73-89.
Nevin’s tenure in Anaheim ends with a 119-149 record after taking over in June 2022 when the Angels fired Joe Maddon amid their 14-game losing streak.
The 2024 season will bring in the fourth manager for the Angels since Mike Scioscia stepped down after the 2018 season.
General Manager Perry Minasian told reporters that he and owner Arte Moreno collaborated to make this decision and that he does not blame Nevin for the Angels’ disappointing performance. It would be hard to blame Nevin, given how many injuries the Angels dealt with this season and how anything that could go wrong went wrong.
The usual critiques that managers face, like bullpen usage and in-game strategies, do not entirely apply to Nevin. There were a few instances where Nevin’s decision-making cost the Angels a win. This roster is not good enough.
The biggest critique you can make about decision-making is the Angels’ struggles with replay challenges, and Nevin is not even the person who makes that call. Most teams have a replay coordinator who decides whether or not the team should challenge a play. Still, the Angels do not have an official replay coordinator, so it is just one of the other coaches that do it and tell Nevin when to challenge. The Angels ranked dead last in successful challenge percentage, which was not even close, coming in at 21.4%. Mind you, the league average is 48.5%.
The Angels’ managerial search is an interesting case because of all the uncertainty of the future of the front office and the general interest in managing the Angels. There have been rumors that Minasian’s future is uncertain, and if he is fired, that would complicate the managerial search.
Another issue the Angels might run into is that the roster is not good, and they have the third-worst farm system in baseball, meaning they do not have a present and do not have a future. And, oh yeah, Shohei Ohtani is likely leaving in free agency this winter, too. There are some good, young pieces like Zach Neto and Logan O’Hoppe, but overall, the future looks bleak for the Halos. This might deflect potential candidates from wanting to manage the Angels.
The Angels are the fourth team to announce a managerial change at the end of the regular season. The Giants fired Gabe Kapler, the Mets fired Buck Showalter, and Terry Francona announced his retirement.
It is unknown this early who the candidates will be, but one thing is sure: a new manager alone will not fix this team. Not to say a new manager cannot have a noticeable impact, but the roster has too many holes and not enough depth to compete for an entire season.
