While no one with the Atlanta Braves will cast blame outright, it has become very apparent that this Braves team misses Ron Washington badly. There just isn't another coach out there that can motivate and prepare a team like he can and when the Angels stole Washington away, the difference in Atlanta's clubhouse was immediate and stark. It certainly didn't hurt that Washington was a great quote and he continued that proud tradition this week.
Washington's future as Angels manager became iffy once Washington had heart bypass surgery. At his age, it would be fair for any organization to worry about putting a guy with serious health problems in the dugout for 162 games during all the warm months of the season.
Unfortunately, the Angels did let Washington go on Tuesday. However, the reason was due to performance and not Washington's health issues (allegedly), and Washington did not mince words when describing what he had to work with roster-wise in LA.
A perfect distillation of the Angels job: https://t.co/bb5rP8FMt3 pic.twitter.com/WK7qHObxhc
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) September 30, 2025
Ron Washington fired by Angels and he did not hold back
While not completely surprising, that the Angels have the gall to fire Washington because his performance wasn't up to par is disingenuous at best. When Washington was at the helm, the team was improving and playing some decent baseball at the start of the season.
Moreover, the Angels' front office and especially owner Arte Moreno never gave Wash much to work with out there. They didn't go out and make big signings, Mike Trout has been hurt for much of the last two seasons, top prospects were being promoted way too quickly, and the Angels had no pipeline of pitching coming basically at all. When Washington said that he was basically tasked to, "make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t", there is something to that for sure.
The Angels are clearly going to be a mess for the foreseeable future and former Braves executive and current general manager Perry Minasian is probably the next guy that is going to be on the chopping block. As for Washington, it is unclear what the future holds for him. He will certainly get some looks around the league given the number of managerial openings at the moment. Braves fans are probably hoping he will end up back in Atlanta, but there is no indication that is on the horizon.