Only the fading White Sox and struggling Athletics have a worse winning percentage in the American League.
The Angels are trailing the Mariners by 67 points and are 12.5 games behind in the American League West.
But manager Ron Washington remains confident his team can rally together, even though Mike Trout (meniscus knee surgery) is not expected to return before next month’s All-Star break.
“I haven’t had a sleepless night since I took this job,” the Angels manager said. He told USA Today Sports“The record is not at all what I wanted and we’re not playing as well as we’d like, but we have a very young team and there are nights when everyone on the field is working minimum wage.”
“But, hey, it’s coming soon. I know it’s coming soon. I’m going to get it done here. And when I get to the top, it’s going to be awesome.”
That sounds like a fairy tale, even though the Angels have won six of their last 10 games.
They are more likely to sell players at the trade deadline than join playoff contention.
They are 10 games out of the final wild card spot.
Washington said in an interview that he was warned not to accept the job because, at 72 years old, it was a disadvantage for him to hold the position.
He ignored the advice, but to this day he doesn’t regret taking the job.
“I’m not a failure,” said Washington, who last managed in 2014. “I’ve never failed in my life. Maybe I have failed, but I’m not a failure. There’s a difference. I’m going to do whatever it takes to not fail. I’m not going to keep failing and saying I’m a failure.” [Expletive] That. I’m going to do what I have to do to get out of there.
“Sometimes you bounce back quickly, and sometimes it takes a little while to bounce back.”
This rebuild will likely take longer than that.
