Rangers Hall of Famer among former big leaguers for AL West managerial vacancy

With the departure of Ron Washington from the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday, news continues to swirl about who Arte Moreno will get to replace the highly-respected World Series winning coach next season.

Washington, 73, took over as the Angels' manager prior to the 2024 season after nearly 10 years seperation of his most recent managerial stint with the Texas Rangers. In his first season, Washington's Angels finished fifth in the American League West at 63-99. This year, Washington only managed 80 games for the Angels, taking a medical absence in June to undergo quadruple bypass surgery.

Now, the Angels are the second AL West team (alongside the Rangers) searching for a new manager come 2026 and weirdly enough a former ballplayer under Washington in Texas is one of those names.

Michael Young shortlisted as potential Angels' managerial candidates

While Angels' ownership hasn't directly spoken on a potential manager for the 2026 season, that doesn't stop baseball insiders and fans from speculating.

Among those speculations is former Angel and future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols, who has managerial experience in the Dominican Republic during his post-playing career.

USA Today national baseball writer Bob Nightengale, along with many others, predict that Pujols is the likely candidate to replace Washington in Anaheim but former Rangers' infielder Michael Young is also included on that list.

It might seem strange that Young is on that list, given his long stories history with the division rival Rangers, who he has spend the last 11 years as senior advisor. But Young, 48, is from California and played college ball at UC Santa Barbara.

The infielder is the Rangers' all-time leader in several offensive categories, including hits, runs scored and total bases was not only inducted into the team's Hall of Fame in 2016 but his No. 10 is also retired by the club.

Young's managerial experience is extremley limited. He's only officially managed the 2024 National League team in the MLB Futures Game when the MLB All-Star Game was in Texas last season. Not to say his breadth of expertise of the game of baseball is limited and he wouldn't be a good manager, it's unclear the direction the Angels want to go.

Rangers could try to lock Young into their organization in different capacity

With the organization in the front office since 2014 and still a heavy presence in the DFW area, Young's coaching potential could be put to better use in Texas if he wanted.

The Rangers mutually decided to part ways with Bruce Bochy earlier this week and while early indication of his replacement is someone with managerial experience, Young could slot in as a member of the future coaching staff.

Early indicators for Texas's managerial search lead right to their front office but to another name, Skip Schumaker. The former National League Manager of the Year, joined the Rangers as an advisor prior to the 2025 season, as a potential heir apparent to Bochy back then.

If it is Schumaker, or one of the other two leading candidates on our early list, Young would slot in as a beneficial voice to this organization as a bench coach/right hand man to the new skipper.