Former Phillies Hitting Coach Joins Angels, Joe Maddon
By Matt Rappa
Former Philadelphia Phillies hitting coach John Mallee will join Joe Maddon and the Los Angeles Angels for the 2020 season.
It appears former Phillies hitting coach John Mallee has found a new home for the 2020 season before manager Gabe Kapler.
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Angels hired Mallee as an assistant hitting coach, according to the Orange County Register’s Jeff Fletcher.
RELATED | Phillies hire Charlie Manuel to replace John Mallee as hitting coach
Mallee reunites with recently hired Angels manager Joe Maddon, who he was hitting coach for with the Chicago Cubs prior to joining the Phillies to replace Matt Stairs after the 2017 season.
What Mallee’s role as an assistant hitting coach entails is yet to be known. Last season, the team used three hitting coaches — Jeremy Reed, Shawn Wooten and Paul Sorrento. It is not known if any of the three will return to work alongside Mallee.
Can now confirm #Angels are hiring John Mallee as assistant hitting coach, as suggested by @MLBBruceLevine. They had not previously announced parting ways with any of last season’s 3 hitting coaches so staff composition still TBA.
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) October 27, 2019
The Phillies parted ways with Mallee as their hitting coach in mid-August, with 44 games remaining on the season. Entering the day Mallee was relieved of his duties, the Phillies’ .417 slugging percentage and 149 home runs both ranked 23rd among all Major Leagues teams.
Mallee was replaced by 2008 World Series-winning manager Charlie Manuel for the remainder of the season. Manuel will return to a senior advisor role to the general manager for 2020, meaning the Phillies and new manager Joe Girardi will need to find a new hitting coach this offseason.
#Phillies GM Matt Klentak opening statement on the firing of hitting coach John Mallee, replaced by Charlie Manuel through the rest of the season pic.twitter.com/s6daecIXlW
— Dave Uram (@MrUram) August 13, 2019
Among the other Angels staffing needs this offseason, like the Phillies, is pitching coach. The Angels addressed that, also on Saturday, hiring recently fired New York Mets manager Mickey Callaway for the position.
The Cleveland Indians, who had Callaway as their pitching coach from 2013 to 2017, posted an American League-best cumulative ERA of 3.65. Callaway helped the Indians to the 2016 World Series, but fell against Maddon’s Cubs, and also coached Corey Kluber to two Cy Young Awards in 2014 and 2017.
In two seasons as Mets manager, Callaway led the team to a 163-161 record, as opposed to Kapler’s 161-163 record with the Phillies over the same stretch.
The Angels have not yet made Callaway’s or Mallee’s hirings official.