(AP) — The Los Angeles Angels hired former major league catcher Kurt Suzuki as their next manager on Tuesday.
Suzuki has spent the past three seasons as a special assistant to Angels general manager Perry Minasian, who didn’t have to look far to find the fifth person to serve as the Halos’ manager during Minasian’s five years in charge.
Suzuki played 16 seasons in the major leagues for five teams, earning an All-Star selection with Minnesota in 2014 and winning a World Series with Washington in 2019.
Suzuki finished his career with two years in Anaheim, retiring after the 2022 season. Suzuki also won the College World Series while playing for Cal State Fullerton, located a few miles from Angel Stadium.
The 42-year-old Suzuki replaces Ron Washington, who wasn’t brought back to the Angels’ dugout after two losing seasons. Washington missed the second half of the current season after undergoing quadruple bypass heart surgery, with Ray Montgomery filling in while Los Angeles finished in last place in the AL West.
The Angels pivoted to Suzuki and fellow special assistant to the GM Torii Hunter as their top candidates after talks with former slugger Albert Pujols broke down in recent days. Pujols, who has a personal services contract with the Angels, was the early front-runner for the job as a longtime favorite of owner Arte Moreno.
Pujols and Suzuki both have no major league coaching experience.
Suzuki is the Angels’ fifth full-time manager in the past eight seasons since Mike Scioscia was let go. The team has the majors’ longest active streaks of futility, with 10 straight losing seasons and 11 consecutive non-playoff seasons.
Although Minasian has assembled a modestly exciting young core led by shortstop Zach Neto and outfielder Jo Adell to join three-time MVP Mike Trout, the team has shown few signs of emerging from its decade-plus of profound struggle under Moreno’s stewardship. The Angels went 72-90 last season, finishing 13th in the American League.
A fourth-generation Japanese-American from Hawaii, Suzuki joins Don Wakamatsu and Dave Roberts on the short list of former and current MLB managers with Asian heritage. Suzuki is also the first Hawaiian-born full-time manager in major league history, the Angels said.
Suzuki would take over the Angels’ dugout during another chapter of negative publicity for the beleaguered franchise, which is currently involved in a highly public trial over a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who died of a drug overdose in 2019. Trout testified in the trial Tuesday.
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