The Los Angeles Angels are undergoing some hefty changes with their organization at the ownership level, with their roster, and with their assistant coaching staff, namely John Mallee and Mike Gallego.
The changes to the coaching staff continue after manager Joe Maddon was fired last season and replaced by Phil Nevin, who then recovered a one-year contract extension this offseason.
News that hitting coach Jeremy Reed wouldn’t be returning to the team broke this week after a terrible 2022 season for the majority of the Angels’ offense outside of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.
Letdowns from the rest of the roster hinted that all areas of the Angels staff could be on alert, and general manager Perry Minasian didn’t waste time shaking things up, via Jeff Fletcher of the O.C. Register:
Hitting coach Jeremy Reed and assistant hitting coach John Mallee will both be replaced, the team announced.
Third base coach Mike Gallego, however, said on Wednesday night that he was told he will be transitioned to another role in the organization to be determined.
Reed had been with the team for the past four seasons and since 2019, the Angels rank near the bottom in runs scored and on-base percentage, and they are middle of the pack in slugging percentage as a club. They are one of five teams in MLB with a sub-.300 OBP and they led all of Major League Baseball in strikeout rate at 25.7%.
Mallee had been with the team in the same timeframe that Maddon was. He joined the Angels prior to the 2020 season, but in various stops around MLB, he hasn’t logged much success with the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and now the Angels.
Gallego has some tenure with the Angels organization and received a promotion to third base coach after serving as director of baseball development from 2015 to the end of the 2018 season.
Perry Minasian discusses flaws with Angels roster
Heading into the 2022 season, Minasian put his focus squarely on pitching, saying it was time to make significant upgrades in that area. He signed several starters and relievers in the hopes that the Angels would finally have enough pitching to compete.
The Angels had an above-average pitching staff in all phases. They ranked ninth in ERA (3.77), 12th in WHIP (1.24), seventh in OBA (.230), and allowed the 11th-fewest home runs (168). But in a rare turn of events for an Angels roster, it was the offense that fell behind.
The Halos ranked 24th in batting average (.233), 23rd in OPS (.687), 30th in strikeouts (1,539), 25th in walks (449), and 22nd in total hits (1,265). So Minasian — in an effort to improve pitching — forgot to keep the bats afloat.
