The Anaheim Angels have announced that manager Kurt Suzuki will not return as the team’s manager in 2027.
In my much younger days, I regularly watched the HBO stand up comedy specials. One that I watched probably dozens of times was the 13th Annual Young Comedians Special, which came out in 1989. Dennis Miller hosted the special, and the young comedians were Jann Karam, Drake Sather, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Fred Stoller, and Warren Thomas. Stoller, now a character and voice-over actor, wrote a book
about the experience, and how each of their lives and careers progressed afterwards, which is a really good read.
Sather had a particular line that stuck with me:
People get so weird when celebrities die. I was watching this documentary on Fred Astaire. They said “Friends and family were shocked at the death of the 88-year-old.” Yeah, I was shocked, too: I thought he died 10 years ago.
Similarly, my first reaction was, damn, I thought the Angels canned Suzuki well before now.
Actually, my first reaction to reading this was, “Wait, isn’t Ron Washington the Angels’ manager?” before remembering that he was fired in the middle of the 2025 season. But then after that it was, oh yeah, they hired Suzuki, and I thought he was cut loose already. That’s probably because general manager Perry Minasian — who, like Suzuki, was under contract only through the end of the 2026 season — was fired four months ago, and while I knew Suzuki was not fired at the same time as Minasian was, I think in my mind I had just already consigned Suzuki to the ranks of former managers.
Suzuki appeared to be brought in as a caretaker manager. He was hired as the manager exactly one year ago after the Angels failed to convince Albert Pujols to take the job. Suzuki had been in the front office as a special assistant to the general manager since 2023, after spending the previous two seasons as part of the Angels’ active roster. The announcement today indicated Suzuki had been offered the opportunity to return to his previous role.
Suzuki is now the second A.L. West manager who is a former major league catcher to be fired this month, with the Mariners’ having terminated Dan Wilson already. Another A.L. West team, the Astros, fired their manager, Joe Espada, though he was never a major league catcher. I don’t think the Rangers’ other divisional rival, the Sacramento A’s, have fired their manager this year, though honestly, I’m not really sure they have a manager. They may just pick a random fan from the stands every game to fill out the lineup card and make pitching changes.
