Ron Washington Blames Angels Players for Baserunning Mistakes

Maren Angus-Coombs | May 31, 2024

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Angels have a bad habit. They tend to run into outs at a much higher rate than the rest of the league.

According to Sam Blum of The Athletic, the Angels have made 25 outs on the bases. The league average is 15.

“If you want to be a running team, you have to run,” manager Ron Washington told Blum. “They have to learn how to do it. It’s something they’ve never done.

“The mistakes that we’re making on the basepaths, they’re not coaching mistakes. They’re decisions that the players are making.”

The Angels have been, arguably, the worst baserunning team in baseball this year.

But, they're committed to remaining aggressive, and believe the struggles are growing pains.

Is that a wise strategy? And is improvement on the horizon?

Read: https://t.co/85JBEQYwEY pic.twitter.com/gi37pD23Kl

— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) May 28, 2024

In addition to leading the league in outs on the bases, the Angels also have the worst stolen-base percentage in the American League. They’ve stolen successfully just 69 percent of the time, with the MLB average sitting at 78 percent. However, caught stealing statistics don’t count toward outs on the bases. Base-stealing and base-running are graded separately.

There are growing pains that come with adjusting to a new style of play on the fly. Last season, the Angels were not a running team. They weren't built for it, and then-manager Phil Nevin was open about that.

“Anytime when you start to look at a change in mindset,” said Angels first-base coach Bo Porter, who also coaches baserunning, “there’s going to be some growth mechanism that’s associated with that.

“If you go from one extreme to the next, there’s a common area where you’re going to find greater success. And there’s other areas where you’ll look and you’ll go, ‘OK, we’re going to have to have to really address the conceptual thought process of the decision-making.' ”

The team hopes that its run-first philosophy translates at some point, but the question remains, how many of these mistakes are growing pains? Through the first couple of months this season, it's possible the Angels are simply guilty of bad baserunning and lacking some baseball IQ relative to their peers.