Ron Washington Reflects On ‘Year Of Growth’ & Looks Ahead To 2025 Season

The Los Angeles Angels’ 2024 season has mercifully come to an end. Battered by injuries all season, the Angels had to turn to some young pieces and unexpected veterans to field a roster for all 162 games. Ron Washington’s first season as manager saw the Angels finish with the worst record in franchise history, going 63-99.

Only the Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins finished with worse records in 2024. The Angels saw season-ending injuries to starters Patrick Sandoval, Jose Soriano and Chase Silseth. They demoted Reid Detmers to Triple-A midway through the season, then called him back up. Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon — the two highest-paid players by a significant margin — played a combined 86 games.

But there was also plenty of good. Tyler Anderson re-established All-Star form before his last season under contract. Logan O’Hoppe, Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel all established themselves as cornerstones of the Angels future. And the team now has a likely top-five pick that they will add to their organization next draft.

As Washington reflected on the campaign, he spoke about what he felt was most important to take away from 2024, via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:

“My reflection is it was a year of growth and it was also a year of experience,” Washington said. “We’re looking for consistency and sustainability. If we can stay healthy with players that we expect to be in the mix, we wouldn’t have to be looking at 162 as a dire situation. I’m not used to losing but I’m trying to instill in these kids to look at in a different way. Yes, we are losing but we’re really learning how to win.”

Washington firmly believes that the Angels can turn some of their more difficult losses into wins next season. And the reason for optimism isn’t misguided, as the Angels did have a stretch from June 24 to Aug. 11 where they went 21-20.

“The growth year was this year, next year is about accountability,” Washington said. “I think next year we’re going to know what to expect every time we go out there. I think next year you’ll see a difference. Just in how we lost ballgames this year, and how we will win ballgames next year. I think we’ll have an identity and some consistency in what we are about. I thought in the middle of the year the kids were showing what we were all about but we ran out of gas.”

The Angels have an incredible amount of work to do to figure out what they have going into 2025 and what they would like to add. But all the messaging from Washington shows that the Angels feel they are ready to compete for the postseason next year. Hopefully, their offseason planning reflects that. Or at the very least, reflects an intentional direction.

Angels’ Reid Detmers looking to clear mind

The difference between expectation and reality was stark for Detmers during the 2024 season. The young starting pitcher was expected to be atop the Angels rotation, but poor performance led to a Triple-A demotion and uneven play at both levels throughout the year.

There was some good to take away. In Detmers’ five September starts after returning from Triple-A, he struck out 39 batters in 24.1 innings. But he also had an 8.14 ERA allowing 11 walks and eight homers with an opponent OPS of 1.018.

He finished the 2024 season with 12 strikeouts in five innings against the Texas Rangers, but with four earned runs on three homers. And it’s this type of mixed bag that he needs to avoid if he wants to start fresh in 2025. And he spoke about what he wants to work on this offseason beyond just getting a breather away from baseball.