Los Angeles Angels rookie manager Kurt Suzuki will have John Gibbons—veteran MLB coach, manager, and player—to lean on in 2026.
Angels’ fans have had good reason to be impatient in recent years. The last—and only—time the club won a World Series championship came in 2002.
Still waiting for a repeat performance 24 seasons later is enough for any MLB fan base to become cranky. To further add to their frustration, since Mike Scioscia’s retirement after the 2018 season, five managers in seven seasons haven’t restored glory to the Angels in the standings. Club owner Artie Moreno hears the frustration from the communities surrounding Angel Stadium.
Welcoming a first-year skipper, after a 72–90 fifth-place finish in the American League West, at first, could be a hard sell to Angels’ fans.
Since retiring after a 16-year career as a catcher at the end of the 2022 season, Suzuki served since 2023 as a special assistant to Perry Minasian, Angels’ general manager.
With no managerial experience at any level of pro ball, and given the Angels last winning a division title in 2014, Suzuki’s having Gibbons close by in the dugout is a no-brainer.
For the past two seasons, Gibbons was positioned to lead another first-time skipper. As the New York Mets bench coach from 2024–2025, it was Gibbons’s responsibility to be the go-to, lean-on-me leader to rookie manager Carlos Mendoza. For Suzuki to grow professionally, just as Mendoza has, he has to know what he doesn’t know—and Gibbons will be his “answer man.”
Once Suzuki was named as the successor to last year’s Angels skippers Ron Washington and Ray Montgomery, Minasian reached out to a familiar face—Gibbons.
During Gibbons’ second stint managing the Toronto Blue Jays (2013–2018), Minasian scouted for the Blue Jays. When Minasian moved on to the Atlanta Braves in 2017, first as an assistant general manager before getting the post of vice president of baseball operations, Gibbons would follow south as well. When Minasian accepted the Angels GM position starting in the 2021 season, Gibbons, in 2020, became a special assignment scout for the Braves’ top baseball operations administrator Alex Anthopoulos. As Minasian’s and Gibbons’ paths crossed with the Blue Jays and Braves, there would be a third reunion for this coming season.
Given that the Angels over the last five seasons have finished no higher than third place in the West, embarrassingly including the 2022 season when that club ended their schedule at 73–89, 33 games behind division champions (and World Series champions) Houston Astros, a change in leadership was necessary—again.
In the coaches room and in the dugout, Gibbons’s more than 20 seasons as either a coach or manager made him a qualified assistant for Suzuki. Unlike the Angels’ new manager who played 16 MLB seasons, Gibbons registered only 18 games at the big leagues level. What the two have in common is a World Series ring. Gibbons was a backup catcher to future Hall of Famer Gary Carter on the 1986 Mets. Suzuki shared catching duties with Yan Gomes for the 2019 Washington Nationals championship club.
In two weeks, Angels training camp begins in Tempe, Arizona, with an overhauled coaching staff. Along with Gibbons, Minasian recruited longtime pitching coach Mike Maddux. In 2023, Maddux led the Texas Rangers’ pitching staff in their run for the franchise’s first World Series championship. The 2025 Rangers’ staff led all MLB clubs with a best 3.47 ERA. Darryl Scott is now Maddux’s assistant pitching coach. Dom Chiti will run the Rangers’ bullpen, Brady Anderson is the hitting coach, and Adam Eaton will handle coaching at first base as well as working with outfielders.
In total, Suzuki has a staff of 11 coaches. Being surrounded by those with years of MLB experience, is Suzuki’s best recipe for success.
Working on a one-year contract, Suzuki doesn’t have much wiggle room as far as guessing on where to position his players during specific times of a game. Making a good first impression is paramount for him when making plans for 2027 and beyond. With Gibbons’s ability to blend old school thinking on who is best to bat, or where to move position players during an at-bat, along with incorporating analytic data, Suzuki’s job should be easier than first thought.
The Angels aren’t expected to contend for the Western Division crown. Whatever one’s definition of respectability is, this is what the franchise probably is shooting for. Not finishing last in the division, or fourth or perhaps even third place, should be the goal of the Angels.
Future Hall of Famer Mike Trout, now entering his 16th season in Anaheim, could have left the club in past years for one that was on the cusp of going deep into the postseason. He has remained loyal to the franchise. A successful 2026 season can only motivate Trout to stay with the Angeles for seasons to come as they hopefully return to contending for the division title.
The reassurance that Gibbons offers the Angels new skipper—whether in conversations on a plane, during a bus ride, or during a late night meal—should make a difference for key in-game decisions by Suzuki. Having a “second manager” in the dugout helping the rookie skipper just might be the best money the Angels have spent this off-season.
