Preparation key for Washington: 'My players will be ready'

This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger’s Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ANAHEIM -- It’s a new year for the Angels and manager Ron Washington, who is not taking anything for granted, especially considering the last time he managed was a decade ago in 2014.

Washington, 71, said he learned a lot over those 10 years away from managing -- and won a World Series as a coach with the Braves in 2021 -- but said he kept the faith that he would get another chance to lead another club again. And now that he’s back in that position, he’s ready to get to work.

“It’s satisfying because this is where I belong,” Washington said at the Winter Meetings in December. “I belong leading.”

With the Angels coming off back-to-back 73-win seasons, Washington knows it won’t be an easy road back to contention but he’s the type of manager who can change the culture of a club, which he did during his time with the Rangers from 2007-14. At that time, it was the Angels who were the class of the American League West, but Texas caught up and put together four consecutive 90-win seasons from 2010-13 and went to the World Series in back-to-back years in ’10 and ’11.

“Let's not talk about the last five or six years when the Los Angeles Angels were struggling,” Washington said. “Let's talk about when they were the team that everybody was trying to run down. That's what I want to think about because we do have the personnel to go out and compete every night. We just have to learn how to sustain it and learn how to be consistent.”

The Angels are also in a difficult division, as the Rangers won the World Series last year, the Astros have advanced to seven straight AL Championship Series and the Mariners have won at least 88 games in each of the last three years. But Washington said he still plans to compete from the jump.

“There ain't no rebuild here,” Washington said. “I'm not thinking about the division right now. I'm thinking about preparation, getting prepared for a season. Once we get prepared and ready for the season, I'm ready for whatever comes in front of us. My players will be ready for whatever comes in front of us. That's the attitude you've got to have in the game of baseball, and then you take it a day at a time.”

Washington also likes to get down and dirty with his coaching, especially working with infielders. He’s not modest about it, as he likes to declare himself the best infield coach in the world. But it’s hard to deny it with the results he’s had working with infielders all the way back to his time with the A’s and Eric Chavez and his work developing infielders in Atlanta such as Freddie Freeman, Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies. He designed his own special glove to work with infielders, and the drills he’s created have been copied by others around the league.

He said he’s not physically able to throw batting practice anymore but quipped that he’s still not the kind of manager who simply observes from behind the batting cage. He likes to work individually with the players and develop strong relationships while helping to build up their work ethic and self-confidence.

“I've been this type of leader all my career and all my life in the game of baseball,” Washington said. “Right now the buck stops with me. I'm ready for that. I'm not afraid of failure because I'm not a failure. My players aren't going to be afraid of failure because they're not failures. Failing is temporary. So that part of it, I'm not concerned about. I'm only concerned about making certain that the preparation is right.”