Angels adding to coaching staff

Mickey Callaway is expected to join Joe Maddon in dugout as the pitching coach.

A familiar face will be joining new Angels manager Joe Maddon in the dugout next season.

Former pitcher Mickey Callaway is expected to be named the Angels’ pitching coach, a person who is familiar with the team’s thinking but is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter said Saturday.

Callaway, 44, was recently removed from his post as manager of the New York Mets after two years, which made him an easy target for his former team.

The Angels considered bringing back their former longtime pitching coach, Mike Butcher, for the vacancy created by the firing of first-year coach Doug White. But Callaway’s success in the same post for the Cleveland Indians from 2013 to 2017 was too appealing to disregard.

The Indians owned the best earned-run average in the American League during Callaway’s five-year tenure. Their 3.65 ERA ranked fourth overall, slightly behind the Dodgers’ MLBleading mark of 3.44.

Cleveland’s pitching staff, which featured twotime Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber and future All-Star Trevor Bauer, also posted the best strikeoutsper-nine-innings rate (9.02) and registered the most strikeouts (7,248) from 2013 to 2017.

Stocked with their own bevy of talented pitchers, the Mets trusted Callaway to transfer his knowledge to New York despite his expanded duties. He went 7785 in 2018, his first year as a manager at any level.

Following a shift in the Mets’ front office, Callaway struggled to live up to heightened expectations this season. At one point, he shouted at a reporter and bungled his initial apology. Callaway oversaw a secondhalf surge, but the Mets fired him with one year remaining on his contract a few days after the season’s conclusion.