Braves miss seeing a familiar face in the opposing dugout this week

Washington was with the Braves organization for seven years (2017-23) and was a favorite among players, coaches and fans alike. He began his stint as the team’s third base coach in 2017 and quickly formed strong bonds with players such as Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson and so many others through the years.

On Tuesday, Olson recalled a rain delay in Detroit when he, Austin Riley, former Braves first base coach Eric Young and Washington sat in the tunnel and listened to Washington’s baseball stories for 90 minutes.

“A lot of those guys in (the clubhouse) didn’t know routine until he came here,” Snitker said. “He was very big in what we accomplished over the years and getting that world championship (in 2021) and his dedication to the organization, the game, the consistency that the guy has every day. Loves baseball and I, pretty much to a man, just told him we’re gonna keep him in our thoughts and prayers and hopefully he gets back sooner rather than later.”

A New Orleans native, Washington signed his first professional contract in 1970 and spent most of the next 10 years playing minor league ball. He latched on with the Twins from 1981-86 before going on to play with Baltimore, Cleveland and Houston.

His coaching career led him to the Texas Rangers, where he took over as manager in 2007 and led the team to the World Series in 2010 and 2011. But winning it all with the Braves in 2021 was Washington’s first World Series championship with any organization.

Washington left the Braves after the end of the 2023 season to take charge of the Angels.

“That I made a difference,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2023 when asked about how he wanted to be remembered by those in the Braves organization. “Every single day that I was there I made a difference. I didn’t cheat anyone every single day that I was there, and I didn’t let the players that I was around cheat each other every day that I was there. So that’s what I want them to remember me by. I made a difference. It was the players that did it, but I made a difference.”

Without Washington in the dugout Tuesday, the Angels defeated the Braves 4-0 to climb to .500. They’re still 8½ games back in the American League West, but just 1½ back in the AL wild-card race.

The Angels were eight games under .500 on May 14 before an eight-game win streak. They fell back to 26-32 at the start of June before hanging tough the rest of the month, a trait that Angels general manager Perry Minasian, an assistant GM with the Braves from 2017-20, said has much to do with the presence of Washington.

“We play to the last out as hard as possible,” Minasian told ESPN recently. “A majority of credit to that should go to Ron, what he’s instituted here and what he preaches on a daily basis.”