His team lost 99 games last year, hasn’t made the playoffs in a decade, and before a pitch was thrown the owner said the Angels would lose “$50 [million] to $60 million, minimum” this season.
Still, manager Ron Washington says he’s optimistic.
“This is the greatest time of the year,” Washington said Thursday, sitting in a golf cart as his players loosened up in the mid-morning Arizona sun. “Spring training. You’ve got a chance to prepare. You’ve got a chance to get your skill set right. You’ve got a chance to come to the ballpark and work.”
And, he might have added, even the lowliest teams believe they have a chance to win.
Read more: ‘This kid is special.’ Kenley Jansen eager to help Angels’ Ben Joyce reach next level
Spring is the season of renewal and rebirth, of new beginnings and new hopes. That’s especially true in baseball. The Angels may have lost 99 games last year, but they’ll start this one unbeaten.
“It’s always important to have a reset. And that’s what spring training is,” Washington said. “We’ve got a group that’s been impressive as far as going about their business. We’ve got a group that can execute things a lot better than the year before.”
Washington, a baseball lifer, still is perpetually upbeat, having spent 55 of his 72 years in the game. And in that time he’s seen a lot.
In Texas, he took a Rangers team that lost 87 games to consecutive World Series appearances three years later. As a coach in Atlanta, he watched the Braves lose 90 games, then win 90 the next season.
Things like that have happened before and can happen again. But if spring is all about that kind of optimism, when the season starts you need to back that hope with performance.
“You know you can talk,” Washington said, “but you’ve just got to walk the walk. In the game of baseball, it’s always about: What have you done for me lately?”
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe agrees.
“Everyone always loves a clean slate,” he said. “But we can’t win opening day today. We can’t win the division today. We can’t win a ring today.”
However, the Angels can imagine doing all those things. And O’Hoppe, who has yet to play on a winning team in three big-league seasons, says…