ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington will be out indefinitely because of health issues, and bench coach Ray Montgomery will manage Friday night’s series opener against the Houston Astros.
Washington, 73, experienced shortness of breath and appeared fatigued toward the end of a four-game series against the Yankees. He was cleared by Yankees doctors to fly home with the team Thursday night and underwent a series of medical tests on Friday.
General manager Perry Minasian announced Washington's status before the game.
The Angels did not specify what symptoms Washington is experiencing, but said the manager was able to address the team in the clubhouse along with Minasian on Friday, and he was planning to watch the game from the GM's Angel Stadium suite. Washington was not made available to the media.
“Wash has not felt great the last couple of days,” Minasian said. “We want to make sure he’s 100% before he’s back in the dugout and managing. How long it’s going to take, I don’t know. I don’t expect it to be too long.
“We all know how important this is for all of us, but health is more important than anything, and me personally, I’m not letting him back in the dugout until I know he’s 100% OK. I love the guy too much.”
Washington, who managed the Texas Rangers to back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011, was hired by Minasian before a 2024 season in which the Angels lost a franchise-record 99 games.
The Angels entered Friday night’s game at 36-38 —- 6 1/2 games behind the Astros in the AL West. The Angels are 15-6 in one-run games, a major league-best .714 winning percentage, and 5-0 in extra innings.
“He wants to manage–I don’t know if he’s ever missed a game–but at the end of the day, you have to make tough decisions,” Minasian said. “For me, I want to make sure the guy is absolutely healthy, and physically, he’s in the right place before we put him back in the dugout.
“We play some close games. They’re not the types of games you can sit back, kick your feet up and just watch. They’re pretty tight games, stressful games, and I want to make sure he’s good to go health-wise before he gets back in the dugout.”
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Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington, foreground, gives autographs to fans before a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Alyssa Howell)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A former Polish justice minister who faces prosecution in his homeland over alleged abuse of power said Monday that he has been granted asylum in Hungary.
Zbigniew Ziobro was a key figure in the government led by the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party that ran Poland between 2015 and 2023. That administration established political control over key judicial institutions by stacking higher courts with friendly judges and punishing its critics with disciplinary action or assignments to far-away locations.
Current Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government came to power more than two years ago with ambitions to roll back the changes, but efforts to undo them have been blocked by two successive presidents aligned with the national right.
In October, prosecutors requested the lifting of Ziobro's parliamentary immunity to press charges against him. They allege among other things that Ziobro misused a fund for victims of violence, including for the purchase of Israeli Pegasus surveillance software.
Tusk’s party says Law and Justice used Pegasus to spy illegally on political opponents while in power. Ziobro says he acted lawfully.
Hungary, led by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has hosted several politicians close to Law and Justice while Polish authorities were seeking them.
In a lengthy post on X Monday, Ziobro wrote that he had “decided to accept the asylum granted to me by the government of Hungary due to the political persecution in Poland.”
“I have decided to remain abroad until genuine guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland,” he said. “I believe that instead of acquiescing to being silenced and subjected to a torrent of lies — which I would have no opportunity to refute — I can do more by fighting the mounting lawlessness in Poland.”
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Monday that Hungarian authorities have granted asylum to “several” individuals who would face political persecution in Poland, according to his ministry. He declined to specify their names.
In an English-language post on X, Tusk wrote that “the former Minister of Justice(!), Mr. Ziobro, who was the mastermind of the political corruption system, has asked the government of Victor Orbán for political asylum.”
“A logical choice,” he added.
FILE - The leader of the Polish junior coalition partners Zbigniew Ziobro, speaks to reporters alongside in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, file)
