Maddux, Chiti, and Scott are out. The pitching staff fired them first.

The Angels let go of pitching coach Mike Maddux, bullpen coach Dom Chiti, and assistant Darryl Scott on Monday — a few months after Maddux joined the staff, and in the middle of a season that has produced a 4.53 ERA and an MLB-worst 508 walks. Those numbers belong to the coaches in only the loosest sense. The roster that generated them was already gutted before Maddux arrived, and the two starters most capable of limiting damage — Soriano and Detmers — were traded away at the deadline. Firing the pitching staff is the organization acknowledging it needs to be seen doing something.

Maddux won a World Series with Texas in 2023 and carries real credibility in the industry. That he lasted only a few months here says more about the situation than about him. Ryan Johnson is at a 5.47 ERA, Walbert Ureña is holding things together at the back of a thinned rotation, and the bullpen was already short-handed before the deadline sales. The walk rate — worst in baseball — is a real problem, but it is also a roster composition problem as much as a coaching one.

Manager Kurt Suzuki keeps his job for now. The front office, still operating under interim GM John Mozeliak, is clearly in evaluation mode across the board. Whether new pitching voices change anything over the final 68 games is almost beside the point. The Angels are not playing to fix their walk rate. They are playing to see who is worth keeping.