The Los Angeles Angels fired pitching coach Mike Maddux, bullpen coach Dom Chiti and assistant pitching coach Darryl Scott on Tuesday, a move that immediately reset the club’s pitching leadership for the final seven weeks of the season. Tim Leveque will take over as pitching coach, while Michael Wuertz becomes the interim bullpen coach.
John Mozeliak, hired six weeks ago as the team’s interim GM, said the change came after conversations with manager Kurt Suzuki about where the coaching staff stood and where it needed to go. The three dismissed coaches were all on one-year contracts, the same setup that covered Suzuki, and the shift leaves the Angels using the stretch run to decide whether more changes are needed in the pitching program.
The timing matters because this was not a staff that had simply run out of time. Maddux and his group oversaw breakout seasons by Reid Detmers, Rafael Soriano, Walbert Urena, Ryan Zeferjahn and Chase Silseth, even as the Angels’ pitching staff was carrying a 4.53 ERA. That mix of progress and inconsistency is what made the move harder to read than a standard midseason dismissal.
Maddux kept his response brief, texting Sports that he had “a great time in Anaheim.” He also said, “Pitching was our strong suit,” and added, “Glad to see some improvement… The coaches room is a solid cast of characters.”
Leveque arrives after his first year as the pitching coach for Angels Class AA Rocket City, and he also worked in the St. Louis Cardinals organization for 20 years with Mozeliak. Wuertz is in his 11th year with the Angels and had been the club’s minor league assistant pitching coordinator. Their promotion gives the Angels a different voice now, but not much time to make it count. Over the remaining seven weeks, the team will learn whether the new staff can steady the pitching program fast enough to shape what comes next.
