[Passan] The Los Angeles Angels are hiring Kurt Suzuki as manager, sources tell ESPN. Suzuki, 42, spent 16 years as a major league catcher and has spent the last three seasons as a special assistant to Angels general manager Perry Minasian.
Well we know he’s used to wearing a red hat at least
Oh no, he’s MAGA? Now I see why Arte likes him.
This has ruined my day 😞
I remember from when Suzuki was on the Nationals team that went to the White House
Probably my first “Oh.” moment with regard to how common MAGA is among MLB players (yes, I was quite naive not to assume it from the beginning).
I just assume they all are. There’s maybe 3 that are pretty obviously not.
Shoutout Christian Koss
Shoutout Doolittle
Shoutout Kike
Shoutout Spencer strider
Shoutout Liam Hendriks and Mark Canha
The median American born MLBer is a bible-thumping white dude from a small town or suburb with a high school education who spent his formative years in small towns with a curmudgeonly old white dude as authority figure / mentor, and who oh by the way recently became either generationally wealthy or merely big paycheck rich.
Their politics are going to be, uh, demographically unsurprising.
They’re also socially maladjusted because they’ve spent the entirety of their formative years focusing on sports as their only means of social interaction, leaving them with very little empathy for those outside the team environment.
Yeah and then Trump grabbed his boobs
Just a reminder that almost every athlete these days at a pro level is rich enough to be shielded from dealing with plebs like you and me so they likely dont give a fuck. This is not universal obviously but people would be better off not idolizing players, they’re mostly not on your team when it comes to humanity and wealth.
Preach brother.
Most of these people are insulated from the real world and have been for a long time.
Along with 99% of the other players too.
Such an exaggeration. It’s probably 60+% but its definitely under 75%.
99% of all numbers are made up
It depends on the racial demographic, but most white MLB players would fit in the single Trumpiest demographic - much, much higher than 75%: white, non-college graduate, high income, religious.
The worst part of us winning it all was seeing the guys who would go golfing with Trump afterwards
Full blown maga
Again, it’s not race that divides us but money and class.
The Huntington Beach fans are gonna love this one.
If those fans could read they’d be very happy
They had the stupidest man in MMA (and that’s really saying something) run their city.
Not Chris Kluwe! Shoutout to him!
Ontologically good Pat McAfee
He might be too “ethnic” for their liking.
Nah. They always like a token. Just look at “Kash” Patel. These people always have a “I’m not a racist. I’m friends with a Fill In The Blank With The Race Of Another Rich Guy That Happens To Not Be White”
Arte moreno hiring friends
Add a nICE extra touch to the Angels
Funny enough I had an old guy at my work conveniently wearing an Angels hat to work after Trump got elected despite not being a fan of angels or baseball in general 🤔
Maybe they can trade for Matt Shaw.
I’m gonna do it this time
Hit a home run to cap off a seven run 9th inning comeback against the Mets in MLB the Show in Celebration?
🫠
This was the only game I actually felt overcome with physical rage
It was one of my favorite games of all time.
Hey, fuck you guy.
Literally me last night after Game 7;(
what he say fuck me for
This the line for Big A jumping?
Just when you thought they couldn’t find a sh*tier human being
Kurt Suzuki is a bad guy?
Even if we remove that part, he has 0 coaching experience. Your team is in shambles. It’s chaotic. What should the owner do? Hire a wild card without any of the positives.
I know nothing really about the whole situation but I knew they had a lot of dysfunction and seeing an internal hire after that just always screams bad decision.
Why? Because a veteran manager would want to get paid well, Suzuki doesn’t have the experience to demand a large salary. This is the value hire.
Let’s say thats the case.. he wants to be cheap. Are there NO coaches in the Triple-A, college, or even bench/pitching/hitting/bullpen/3rd base/1st base coach amongst the other MLB teams that he could’ve hired?
Edit: And “My owner is too cheap to pay for qualified coaches” is not a good argument for anything
this is arte moreno lol. making bad decisions is a given
I expect nothing and Im still disappointed
If you were a fan of a shitty team with a long history of underperforming, would you want your new coach to be an inside hire with no coaching experience?
What did Suzuki do?
He’s best friends with the current president (political not team)
Perfect fit for Orange County then
Not anymore, surprisingly enough. Gone quite heavily blue in the last 4-5 years
Source?
Its pretty purple now, depending on the district. You have conservative and democrats representing the county
Not a surprise considering Arte is a trump donor lol
Ain’t no way, was Pujols asking for too much or something?
No but the Angels are currently paying him to be an ambassador and Arte probably didn’t want to pay him twice.
He loses that ambassador deal if he takes on a coaching position in the league or something like that
Only if he does so with another team.
probably not too much for most teams in the MLB, but definitely too much for Arte
no AC, no living wage for managers
Just the tip of the iceberg my friend
I bet Arte was asking Pujols to manage for free since he is already paying him the personal services contract
I see that Suzuki was working as a special assistant with GM, so likely has more connections/rapport, that or Pujols just really did not want it.
I suspect Pujols probably would not want it given other openings, no real reason for him to choose Angels over Giants or Padres or whoever else unless he really likes Anaheim or Arte
Or maybe his interview wasn’t that great. Great players don’t always make great managers/coaches.
Yeah, I wonder if there’s famously any lifelong St. Louis Cardinals catchers who were pretty decent in their career who became managers that we could look at for comparison?
Darn, nothing comes to mind.
No examples of an absolutely fucking terrible manager who fits that description.
Especially not one who went to the Royals and failed there too.
It’s probably that Pujols is being paid for his consulting job and Arte wanted to just tack that contract onto his manager contract and shortchange him.
It’s managing a major league baseball team, Michael, how much can it possibly cost? Ten dollars?
We’re talking about the GM who had two first ballot hall of famers dropped in his lap, in their primes at the same time and couldn’t even break .500.
Not defending anything but technically he only had one semi-healthy elite year of Trout
I suspect Pujols is taking another job.
Molina Pujols co-managing the Cardinals 🙏🏼
Pujols will manage the big picture, Yadi will handle the day to day
San Diego possibly
Kurt being catcher likely understands the game better from a pitching perspective. I doubt Pujols wouldn’t have done a great job, but I can see this being a smarter pick.
Probably asked for too much in terms of support staff and maybe air conditioning for the weight room, not too much in salary.
I thought I read somewhere that Pujols wanted some resources and ability to make some decisions that Arte wouldn’t agree to.
Yeah he didn’t want to be stuck coaching an Angels team if the org doesn’t meaningfully change lol
He knew it was a dumpster fire so he said no thank you
I have to assume Baltimore drove up the price
You mean this guy?
This is my favorite Lenny moment
Sir, a second evil baseball team has hit Los Angeles
Wait is that a real photo?
Yup in 2019 when the Nats visited after the WS win
Oh ok that makes sense then, thanks for the info
😬😬😬
Yep
Welp I’m out
🤨that grip
Holding him like he’s Ivanka
Holy fuck how have I never seen this?
This would had ruined a political career 25 years ago.
Now they can literally tear down the White House without notice and everyone just shrugs
Unfortunately we have NO room to talk lol
I left r/nba to escape a story about Adam Silver and Glen Taylor lying in bed together on the phone with David Stern just to be greeted with this photo.
RELEASE THE BURN BOOK GLEN.
Holy shit that was /r/nba ?! I Scrolled past that on my feed thinking it was just a randomly absurd /r/nbacirclejerk post. You literally made me go check lmao wtf.
Angels really are gonna force me to be a Dodgers fan aren’t they…
Dude, watch the Padres. As a recovering Angels fan, I put my time there and had so much fun. F the Dodgers.
Thank god I live in Milwaukee
I’m sure all the Angels fans that gave the Dodgers shit for not speaking out against ICE are going to give the Angels shit for hiring Suzuki, right?
Yes we are actually, this franchise is a shit show and any angels fan will tell you that
Angels fans are not shy about calling out their shitty owner
It’s like, our thing
That’s correct
You must not know many angels fans if you think we’re not willing to call out this team for the shitshow that it is
I followed the Angels during Ohtani’s entire time there and yep, can’t think of a single time anyone said anything positive about Arte.
Angel fans, notorious for never shit talking their own team
Did Angels fans really? Knowing our owner, they can’t lack that level of self awareness.
I don’t think Angels fans mind hating their own team
Do you see any of us happy about this?
I haven’t seen any of us happy about it before knowing he’s in the cult. It’s a ridiculous choice on about forty different levels.
they are doing exactly that, what are you trying to push here?
Yes.
I was an Angels fan but I stopped caring about that shit franchise years ago, and I will 100% give them the same shit. Fuck the Angels and fuck the Dodgers.
the in-house and presumably cheap option. checks out. and probably a yes-man to arte as well…
Oh he is literally just Perry Minasian and Arte’s proxy in the dugout. A skinsuit that will be controlled from the owner’s suite.
“The Angels will be attention to detail”
internally screams
As a White Sox fan, I can say that hiring within the organization is a bad idea (if your organization is not well-run)
Crazy that even our GM (who was hired within the org) and hasn’t hired anyone else from inside.
He might just break the cycle. But it’s a poor strategy, regardless.
The Angels are truly the AL Rockies.
Can confirm.
Hearing Krusty’s voice on this one to perfectly capture the reaction
He’ll get the Angels invited to the White House when they are 22 games out in late August
Lmfao
Keep an eye on mid September because that’s when they play in DC
Sell the team Arte.
As a dodgers fan who used to go to more Angels games growing up due to it being easier to access living in south county, it’s a travesty what this guy has done and continues to do to the Angels.
No kidding. When he took over they were just two years removed from a championship and were one of the more popular franchises in the league despite being the clear #2 in their market. Now they’re an after thought and would be completely irrelevant if Trout wasn’t there.
To Mark Cuban. He’s an annoying butt-hole, but at least he tries to win.
Well the good news is that now the Giants won’t hire him.
They seem dead set on convincing vitello
He’s already convinced, he just wants the money
I have my reservations/concerns about Vitello, but seeing how bleak the rest of the prospective coaching pool was this year, I get the mentality behind trying something risky/unorthodox.
If I were you guys. I would totally rather the fence swing like this. Then the uninspiring retread
That would have made the 6th circle of Hell we are currently in downgrade to the 9th circle
To go from Ron Washington to potentially Albert Pujols then all the way to the bottom of the bucket down to Kurt Suzuki.
I can only wish the worst for Arte Moreno and the Angels.
“The Angels Way”
They started with Joe Maddon.
He’s 42? I remember his rookie year with Piazza.
I remember him at cal state Fullerton. I’m getting fucking old
Oh hey it’s almost 3 PM here, I was overdue on crumbling into dust today.
3 PM? What are you doing awake, it’s nap time.
BlaQ Trienen wants to be an Angels player
Treinen can be the new closer and Matt Shaw can be the new 3B
lol
But please god no please noooo
Curt Schilling as bench coach
John Rocker for PR director.
Please take that bum off our hands
That man pretty much is Orange County personified
Lol a lot of sections of OC. Politics: HB, College: Fullerton, Income: South OC, Ethnicity: Irvine
Orange County has voted democrat for like 10+ years.
People need to update their opinions on OC to the current decade before they start spouting bullshit
Lots of the OC is chill, but I’ve seen way more MAGA hats at Angel Stadium than anywhere else. Hell, the only time I’ve ever seen a house fly the Chic-Fil-A flag was in HB.
I mean HB is for sure MAGA but overall the county has been blue for like a decade
-Person who hasn’t been to orange county in a decade
Honestly lol yes I see it
This is a deeply unserious franchise and I hate it
Suzuki apparently won the position by offering to accept the lowest salary
Its a genius hire.
Even when they are losing and 20 games out of first Suzuki will just say it was rigged and declare that they actually won.
After the Angels lose to the Yankees, he will say something about Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio illegally scoring runs from beyond the grave. Widespread scorer fraud. Many people are saying this!
Remember when Kurt Suzuki was at the White House to celebrate the Nationals winning the 2019 World Series, and he slapped on a red MAGA hat while Trump groped him? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Anyway, have fun Angels fans!
I’m going to jump off the Big A.
That’s a very strange way to spell Albert Pujols
God damn… can they please announce a Portland team.
As an Angels fan living in Portland, I dream of this outcome
Same
“Make angels great again”
Maybe he’ll be a good manager. It’s impossible to know. But it definitely feels like the Angels hired the cheapest candidate that they thought would push back against ownership the least.
Trumpers love hiring Trumpers.
lets hope for the best
The team that has had Pujols, Trout, and Ohtani and won nothing makes a bad decision? Shocking.
Is this what it feels like to be a Jets fan?
Another generation of losing
Unexpected but rooting for him.
Braves legend
But hey, he’s the all time leader at negative DRS for catchers.
I hate arte so much.
Pujols I hope you like crabcakes
This greatly hurts the chance of Pujols becoming the manager
Can anyone give any reason to why this is a bad hire lmao
There is no reason at all to believe Pujols would be a better manager than Suzuki
Angels about to catapult to #1 in ESPN’s preseason power rankings after this
Arte wants to attract Japanese players again
It just blows my mind that Kurt Suzuki hasn’t been playing for the past three years. Man, time sure flies by!