ANAHEIM, Calif. \u2014 Kurt Suzuki is taking over the Los Angeles Angels as a first-time manager with a monumental task before him \u2014 and perhaps a very limited amount of time to show progress.<\/p>\n
Suzuki, a Wailuku native and Baldwin High graduate, got just a one-year contract when he became the Angels’ sixth manager in the past eight seasons, general manager Perry Minasian said Wednesday. Minasian also has one year left on his deal with the Angels, who are mired in a stretch of 10 straight losing seasons after finishing 72-90 last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s tied in with me,\u201d Minasian said of Suzuki, the longtime catcher who served as Minasian’s special assistant for the past three seasons after his retirement from a 16-year playing career.<\/p>\n
Neither man expressed any worries about the brief window given to the 42-year-old Suzuki, who will be learning\u00a0his vast new job\u00a0under unusual pressure. Suzuki\u2019s contract appears to be another unique decision by Angels owner Arte Moreno, whose team hasn\u2019t made the playoffs since 2014 or had a winning season since 2015.<\/p>\n
Minasian and Suzuki both said they feel urgency to end the Angels’ decade-long drought, no matter how long their contracts might be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI make a joke of it, but I feel like I’ve been playing on one-year deals my whole career,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cI feel like I had to prove myself every single year I played this game. … I’m here because I want to lead this team. I\u2019m here because I want to help these players. I want to do good for this city and this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suzuki teared up while thanking his wife and three children in the front row of his news conference at Angel Stadium, where he played his final two major league seasons before moving into Minasian’s front office.<\/p>\n
Suzuki was chosen by Minasian from a field of candidates that included\u00a0Albert Pujols. Minasian wouldn’t say how negotiations broke down with the former Angels slugger, who also has never coached or managed in the majors.<\/p>\n
At least Pujols has winter-ball experience in a dugout, but Minasian is confident Suzuki will pick up his new job swiftly because he’s already done large parts of it as a catcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought I would be comfortable hiring a manager who wasn\u2019t a manager before, but this is a different person,\u201d Minasian said. \u201cI know he didn\u2019t have a coaching title, but even when he played, he coached-slash-managed for different places. He managed a game for a long time. I believe he\u2019s the right person for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suzuki is used to achieving great things despite starting from a tough position.<\/p>\n
After growing up on Maui, he walked on at Cal State Fullerton and grew into a freshman starter, a College World Series winner and a second-round draft pick by the Oakland Athletics.<\/p>\n
He made one All-Star team and won a World Series ring during an accomplished major league career. His lively bat produced 143 homers, but he was even better known for his excellent defense, game management and relationships with his pitchers, including Shohei Ohtani.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I was born to do this \u2014 to lead players, to help players get better,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cThat\u2019s my personality. I feel like I\u2019ve done it on a yearly basis with 29, 30 pitchers throughout a whole season, trying to understand how to get the best out of each player, and that\u2019s what excites me. Obviously you play this game to win also, but what excites me is being able to help kids reach their potential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suzuki\u00a0replaces Ron Washington, whose option year wasn’t picked up after two losing seasons. Brad Ausmus, Joe Maddon, Phil Nevin and interim Ray Montgomery have also briefly held this slippery job since Mike Scioscia wasn’t brought back in late 2018 after 19 years in charge.<\/p>\n
Suzuki skirted questions about Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon, his teammate on the Washington Nationals’ championship team in 2019. Rendon, who didn’t play at all this season due to a hip injury, still has one season left on the catastrophic $245 million, seven-year contract Moreno gave him as a free agent after the World Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven’t spoke to Perry about that whole situation,\u201d Suzuki said of Rendon, who will make $38 million from the Angels next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM, Calif. \u2014 Kurt Suzuki is taking over the Los Angeles Angels as a first-time manager with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,13360,6632,6631,5167,7,2289,2998,127,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-20444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-app-professional-sports","12":"tag-app-sports","13":"tag-app-top-stories","14":"tag-associated-press","15":"tag-california","16":"tag-hawaii","17":"tag-spectrum-news-staff","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}