The Angels made an out-of-the-blue change atop baseball operations. Los Angeles has fired general manager Perry Minasian and hired longtime Cardinals GM John Mozeliak as their interim general manager.<\/p>\n
Mozeliak\u2019s official title is baseball operations consultant. He\u2019ll take over daily roster maintenance in the short term but is apparently not under consideration for a full-time position. The club announced that Mozeliak is being brought in to \u201c(refine) a baseball operations strategy and (assist) the organization in its search for a new general manager.\u201d They didn\u2019t specify how long they expect that search to last.<\/p>\n
Minasian is out after a five-plus year run as general manager. Team president Molly Jolly released a statement in the team\u2019s press release. \u201cPerry has been a valued leader who has worked tirelessly over the last six years to strengthen our baseball operations department,\u201d Jolly said. \u201cI am grateful for his dedication, insight and many contributions to our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Halos hired Minasian over the 2020-21 offseason. They\u2019d made the playoffs just once in the previous 11 seasons and were halfway through their window of club control over\u00a0Shohei Ohtani<\/a><\/strong>. Minasian took over a roster with two of the best players in MLB but sorely lacking from a depth perspective without much in the minor league pipeline. It was more of the same during his front office hierarchy, which was characterized by a continued inability to put a capable supporting around Ohtani (for three seasons) and Mike Trout<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Los Angeles has systematically refused to rebuild, a mandate that spans multiple front office regimes and presumably comes directly from owner Arte Moreno. They\u2019ve tried to patch things together with mid-level free agent signings and by drafting college players whom they\u2019d expedite through the minor leagues.<\/p>\n While that approach has panned out with shortstop Zach Neto<\/a><\/strong>, their other top picks under Minasian have yet to make a significant impact. They\u2019ve selected Sam Bachman<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Nolan Schanuel<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0Christian Moore<\/a><\/strong> with top 15 overall picks between 2021-24. Schanuel is a low-end regular at first base. Bachman has battled injuries and wound up in relief. It\u2019s still too early to judge on Moore, who has raked against minor league pitching but struggled in his first 58 MLB games while trying to find a defensive fit.<\/p>\n That\u2019d perhaps be less of an issue if they were finding value beyond the first round, but that didn\u2019t really happen. The Angels selected Ky Bush<\/a><\/strong> with their second-round pick in 2021. They punted their next two second-round choices to sign Noah Syndergaard<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0Tyler Anderson<\/a><\/strong>, respectively.<\/p>\n Ohtani\u2019s free agency after the 2023 season was a clear organizational crossroads. The Angels were a few games back in the Wild Card picture at the deadline and decided to go for it. They pushed in for\u00a0Lucas Giolito<\/a><\/strong> and Reynaldo L\u00f3pez<\/a><\/strong>, sending Bush and then-prospect\u00a0Edgar Quero<\/a><\/strong> to the White Sox for the impending free agent righties. More notable is that they took Ohtani off the trade market, reportedly the second straight year in which Moreno stepped in to kill the possibility of dealing the sport\u2019s best player.<\/p>\n It immediately went south. The Angels went 8-19 in August to fall out of playoff position. They placed Giolito, L\u00f3pez and other impending free agents on waivers to dump their salaries and avoid paying the luxury tax. Ohtani would depart for a second-round draft pick just months after the Halos could\u2019ve commanded a franchise-altering return. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic<\/a> recently reported that the Rays had floated a prospect package involving Junior Caminero<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0Carson Williams<\/a><\/strong> for a couple months of Ohtani\u2019s services.<\/p>\n The Ohtani compensation pick has been emblematic of the team\u2019s overall approach. They used that selection on Dallas Baptist righty Ryan Johnson<\/a><\/strong>, who sat out the rest of the 2024 season. The Angels jumped Johnson directly to MLB as a reliever last year. He struggled and was optioned all the way to High-A in May to build up as a starter. Johnson has been up and down from Double-A this season and has an 8.21 ERA in 34 major league innings. He\u2019s still one of the team\u2019s better prospects, but there hasn\u2019t been any sign of an organizational development plan.<\/p>\n There has been a similar amount of turnover in the dugout. The Angels had four full-time managers over Minasian\u2019s GM tenure, plus a half-season from Ray Montgomery on an interim basis while Ron Washington was absent for health reasons. Minasian inherited Joe Maddon, who fired midway through the \u201922 season. Phil Nevin got a season and a half before the Halos hired Washington. They moved on from him last offseason. After a reported pursuit of Albert Pujols fell apart, they hired Kurt Suzuki on an atypically short one-year contract. That lined him up with Minasian, whose contract expires at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n The Angels have gone 392-500 since the start of 2021. Their 63-99 record two seasons ago is the worst in franchise history. They\u2019re one of four teams \u2014 along with the Pirates, Rockies and Nationals \u2014 that hasn\u2019t made the playoffs in the last five years and have the sport\u2019s longest active drought at 11 seasons.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no real reason to believe they\u2019re on the verge of a turnaround. This year\u2019s 34-48 start puts them on a 67-win pace and ties them with the Royals for the worst record in the American League. While they\u2019re technically only 5.5 games back of a Wild Card spot, that\u2019s far more about the state of the AL playoff field. Their draft strategy perennially leaves them with one of the sport\u2019s weakest farm systems. Baseball America ranked their minor league pipeline<\/a> 28th in MLB entering the season.<\/p>\n Minasian certainly doesn\u2019t deserve all the blame. Moreno\u2019s intervention in baseball operations has spanned multiple front offices. The GM inherited the disastrous Anthony Rendon<\/a><\/strong> contract and dealt with varying payroll limits, particularly after the team\u2019s local television deal fell apart. The Angels haven\u2019t gone beyond their three-year, $63MM contract for\u00a0Yusei Kikuchi<\/a><\/strong> over the past five seasons. Their only other signees for more than $30MM were\u00a0Raisel Iglesias<\/a><\/strong> (whose salary they dumped a few months into a four-year deal), Anderson, and\u00a0Robert Stephenson<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The challenge will now fall on Mozeliak, at least in the short term. The 57-year-old had a long and generally successful run leading baseball operations with the Cardinals. Mozeliak spent more than a decade in the St. Louis scouting department before ascending to the GM role as a 38-year-old going into 2008. The Cards returned to the postseason within two years and won the World Series in 2011. They had a knack for developing mid-round draftees into productive big leaguers for most of the next decade and made the playoffs nine times between 2011-22.<\/p>\n St. Louis was a little delayed in pivoting away from their traditional success relying on ground-ball pitchers in front of an excellent infield defense. They fell behind in terms of developing swing-and-miss arms as much of the league emphasized working up in the zone with four-seam fastballs. That has caught up to them over the past couple seasons, as they missed the playoffs each year from 2023-25. Amidst the collapse of their own local broadcasting deal, Cards ownership has also tightened payroll restrictions and moved into a retooling period focused on building their pitching pipeline.<\/p>\n Mozeliak announced over the 2024-25 offseason that the upcoming year would be his final running baseball operations. He indeed turned the reins to Chaim Bloom, who\u2019d spent the previous couple seasons in their player development department, as soon as the \u201925 season ended. It wasn\u2019t clear at the time whether Mozeliak would look for other opportunities to lead baseball operations.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll take that on in Anaheim, albeit with an apparent end goal of moving back into more of an overhead position and turning daily responsibilities to the next general manager. Assuming that doesn\u2019t happen before the August 3 trade deadline, it\u2019ll be Mozeliak\u2019s responsibility to manage a likely selling scenario.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s top potential trade candidates (e.g. Neto, Jos\u00e9 Soriano<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Reid Detmers<\/a><\/strong>) are all under arbitration control for multiple seasons. Bob Nightengale of USA Today<\/a> reported over the weekend that Moreno wasn\u2019t interested in trading those players or outfielder\u00a0Jo Adell<\/a><\/strong>. Continuing with their usual approach wouldn\u2019t leave them with much to dangle at the deadline.\u00a0Kirby Yates<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0Brent Suter<\/a><\/strong> are impending free agent relievers who might be able to return a low-level prospect. They\u2019ll need to decide on Suzuki\u2019s future as manager this offseason.<\/p>\n