Mike Scioscia Describes Report Of His Impending Departure From The Angels As "Poppycock"

Mike Scioscia has been manager of the Angels for 19 years, long enough to have been around before they were the Los Angeles Angels, before they were even the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Their current condition—a middling, forgotten team criminally wasting two of the most exciting players in all of baseball—is almost certainly their lowest of the Scioscia era, which is why it was not a great surprise to see a report from Ken Rosenthal Saturday night that said Scioscia would be leaving the team following this season.

Scioscia, nearing the completion of a 10-year, $50 million contract, is expected to step down at the end of the season, according to major-league sources. His decision not to pursue a new deal would be his alone and not the result of pressure from the club, sources said.

Scioscia responded to the report Sunday morning, in colorful terms, saying that no such departure is in the works:

Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia on Sunday dismissed a report by The Athletic that he would step down at the end of the season, calling it “just chatter” and “poppycock.”

Interestingly, Scioscia reportedly declined to comment to The Athletic ahead of Rosenthal’s report, but then refuted it strongly in comments to ESPN. But this refutation stopped short of offering any sort of commitment to the team beyond the 2018 season:

“Nothing has changed since I spoke on this last October,” the manager said in the wake of The Athletic report. “I am focused on this year and will talk to Arte [Moreno, Angels owner], John [Carpino, Angels president] and Billy [Eppler, Angels general manager] after the season.”

So reports of him having made a decision are definite poppycock, but the suggestion that he might be done with the Angels ... possibly not poppycock? Slight chance of poppycock? Time will tell.