Angels Hit Panic Button: Maddux, Chiti and Scott Out in Pitching Staff Purge
We're not even to September, and the Los Angeles Angels are already cleaning house. The team announced Tuesday that pitching coach Mike Maddux, assistant pitching coach Darryl Scott, and bullpen coach Dom Chiti are all out, in a sweeping shakeup of a pitching program that has been a disaster all season.
The numbers tell the story. Going into Monday, Angels pitchers owned a 4.51 ERA — seventh-worst in baseball — and had walked more batters than anyone in the majors: 508 free passes. That's not just bad. That's a full-blown walk-a-thon.
We needed a change
John Mozeliak, the club's interim GM and baseball operations consultant, says the axe came after discussions with manager Kurt Suzuki. "After spending time discussing with Kurt where we are as a coaching staff and where we want to go in the future, we felt it was best to make a change," Mozeliak said in a statement. "With seven weeks remaining, we plan to use this time to evaluate what additional steps are needed to elevate our entire pitching program and best position us for success moving forward."
A brutal season just keeps getting worse
The Halos have the worst record in baseball at 45-74, and they're barreling toward an 11th straight losing season. This front office already made one big move this year, firing general manager Perry Minasian in late June. Now the coaching staff is catching strays.
Maddux, the veteran pitching coach who turns 65 on Aug. 27, signed a one-year deal with the Angels in the offseason. He pitched 15 big-league seasons and has spent 24 years as a pitching coach across five teams: Brewers (2003-2008), Rangers (2009-2015), Nationals (2016-2017), Cardinals (2018-2022), Rangers again (2023-2025), and now Anaheim. His crowning achievement came in Texas, where he won a championship in 2023 and helped engineer a staff that had the best ERA in MLB in 2025.
Chiti was in his first season as the Angels' bullpen coach after rejoining the organization in late 2023. Scott, also in his first year with the club, came over after years with the Rockies. All three are now looking for work as the Angels try to salvage something — anything — from this lost season.
The message is clear: In Anaheim, nobody's job is safe. With seven weeks left, this isn't about salvaging this season. It's about figuring out who's worth keeping for whatever comes next.
ESPN's Alden Gonzalez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.