Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington stepped away from the team earlier this week due to an undisclosed medical issue. Ray Montgomery took his place as interim manager, with no certainty on when Washington might return or what type of issue he was facing.
On Friday, that absence extended. And the franchise announced that he is going to miss the remainder of the 2025 season due to that medical issue. It remains undisclosed at this time, but it will be Montgomery making the managerial decisions for the Halos the rest of the year.
General manager Perry Minasian spoke about Washington’s medical leave on Friday prior to L.A.’s loss to the Washington Nationals, leaving it up to Washington to decide if his medical issue is revealed, and wishing him well, via Doug Padilla of The O.C. Register:
“He understands what needs to be done (but) I’m not going to go into details; that’s for him to tell if he decides to,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said before Friday’s game against the Washington Nationals. “But for me, I’m excited for him to do what he needs to do. Forget about the baseball stuff, just get healthy because he’s a great human being. And anybody that’s around him on a daily basis, he’s somebody that you want around, right? So we’re going to miss him.”
While Minasian wouldn’t say exactly what Washington was dealing with, he revealed that the ANgels manager is taking all the right steps to get healthy and return to the team on his own timeline.
“He’s in good spirits,” Minasian said. “I think there’s peace of mind when you know what you need to get done, right, and when you know what you need to do for him. So we’ve gotten a lot of answers to a lot of questions.”
The Angels will have to push forward without their leader, despite the close bond he’s built with several of the Angels core pieces. And with the Angels firmly in the middle of a postseason push, there is still a lot to fight for in Anaheim.
Angels two games out of playoffs
The Angels sit at 40-41 after losing to the Nationals on Friday. That puts them just two games — and two spots — out of the third Wild Card slot in the American League playoff picture. That place is currently occupied by AL West rival, the Seattle Mariners, at 42-39. Only the Cleveland Guardians — 40-40 — sit in between the two.
