Angels manager Ron Washington calls 90-minute meeting to encourage struggling team
DETROIT — Nearly five months after Angels manager Ron Washington responded to two embarrassing games to start the season by calling a meeting, he did it again.
Washington called the entire team together for more than 90 minutes before Tuesday’s game in Detroit, the first time since doing so during the opening weekend in Baltimore.
The Angels had lost five games in a row and 13 of their previous 16, with their bats going silent for much of that stretch. They were just swept in a four-game series in Toronto.
“We can’t let what happened in Toronto affect what we have to do from today forward,” Washington said. “That’s what that was all about.”
Washington said many players spoke as part of what he described as a meeting of encouragement.
“It went extremely well,” Washington said. “It wasn’t a chewing out meeting. It was a come to Jesus meeting, and it went well. Everybody had something to say. Everybody spoke. I was pleased with it. …
“Quite a few spoke up. It was great. It was nice for them to get up in front of people and recognize that they can share their feelings.”
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe also characterized the meeting as a positive. He said that, despite the losing, the Angels have been growing tighter.
“We love coming out with each other, and we’re grinding it out,” O’Hoppe said. “Meetings like that bring us really close. There was no negative take out of it. It was all productive.”
The Angels came into Tuesday’s game with a 54-77 record. They are in last place in the American League West, with the fourth-worst record in baseball. They have 31 games remaining. Ending their streak of eight straight losing seasons is almost impossible. The Angels would need to go 19-12 just to equal last season’s victory total.
Although they can’t turn this season into anything positive, they can still try to play better baseball and gain experience for next year.
“What else are you going to do? Mail it in and just take hits for five weeks?” O’Hoppe said. “That’s not an option for any of us. The approach going forward is just making the most of what you have left, because I know we all miss it at some point in the offseason.”
MOORE TO INJURED LIST
Left-handed relief pitcher Matt Moore was placed on the injured list with what has initially been diagnosed as a forearm strain.
“Preliminary, it sounds as good as I could hope for,” Moore said.
He is planning to take some time off throwing, and perhaps get more tests later in the week. Moore, who had Tommy John surgery earlier in his career, said he didn’t think this felt like the same type of injury.
Moore, 35, said he’s planning to pitch again this season, but doesn’t want to “risk potentially making it worse.” He said he is “planning on playing next year.”
Moore has a 5.03 ERA in 51 games. He signed a one-year, $9 million deal to return to the Angels last winter, after he posted a 2.66 ERA with the Angels in 2023.
The Angels called up right-hander Ryan Miller to take Moore’s roster spot. Mike Trout was moved to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Miller.
Miller, 28, was acquired by the Angels in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft last winter. He had been released by the Arizona Diamondbacks during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He then played independent baseball for a season before signing with the New York Yankees. The Angels are his third organization since returning.
He had a 2.45 ERA in 62⅓ innings at Triple-A, with 14 walks and 61 strikeouts.
NOTES
Washington said they felt Griffin Canning earned the right to start again after pitching six scoreless innings following an opener in his previous outing. “He’s been starting for us all year, and we decided to go with that opener, and he wasn’t happy with it,” Washington said. “He came in and gave us six solid innings, and I thought he earned to get the ball and show us that there was never any problem with that. And so he’s on the line. He’s on the line. I feel like he needs to get the ball from the first inning on and prove to us that it was a fluke that (he pitched better after an opener).” …
The Angels’ affiliate in the Dominican Summer League advanced to the championship series. They will face the DSL Red Sox.
UP NEXT
Angels (RHP Griffin Canning, 4-11, 5.18 ERA) at Tigers (TBD), Wednesday, 3:40 p.m. PT, Bally Sports West, 830 AM