{"id":916395,"date":"2026-07-06T13:32:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/916395\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T13:32:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:32:26","slug":"angels-interim-gm-john-mozeliak-gives-fans-a-reason-to-hope-for-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/916395\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels interim GM John Mozeliak gives fans a reason to hope for wins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2012, when Mark Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers<\/a>, team president Stan Kasten declared mediocrity would no longer be acceptable.<\/p>\n

Would the Dodgers<\/a> improve their minor league system? Yes. Would the Dodgers improve their major league roster? Also yes. Would spending in one area preclude spending in another? Absolutely not.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese fans expect and deserve a team that can win,\u201d Kasten said then<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So do Angels fans<\/a>. For the first time this decade, with the arrival of John Mozeliak<\/a> as interim general manager, they have legitimate hope.<\/p>\n

Mozeliak, whose St. Louis Cardinals teams reached the playoffs more often than not in his 18 years running baseball operations there, is here to end baseball\u2019s longest postseason drought, or at least steer the Angels in that direction.<\/p>\n

At first, I was shocked to hear him say he does not believe the Angels need to rebuild. Under owner Arte Moreno<\/a>, the Angels have resisted rebuilding, preferring to add lower-tier free agents and rush college players to the major leagues in an effort to field a competitive roster. That has failed: For the first time in franchise history, the Angels could finish in last place for a third consecutive season.<\/p>\n

But, when Mozeliak and I sat down in the Angels\u2019 dugout the other day, he explained that the path forward in Anaheim should not be tanking. It should be acting like the major-market team the Angels are \u2014 and were, during Moreno\u2019s first decade of ownership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing you have to realize about the Los Angeles Angels is: they do have resources,\u201d Mozeliak said. \u201cFrom Mr. Moreno to the market size, this is a place that could be a very, very special place.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Moreno\u2019s first decade, under Bill Stoneman and Mike Scioscia, the Angels were a player development machine. In 2003, in his first winter as owner, Moreno signed<\/a> the best position player on the free-agent market in Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero and the best pitcher on the market in four-time All-Star Bartolo Colon.<\/p>\n

The questions Mozeliak asks and answers now are the same ones Kasten did with the Dodgers. Can the team deploy resources to upgrade scouting and player development? Yes. Can the team do the same with the major league roster? Also yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many franchises in the game of baseball that cannot do that,\u201d Mozeliak said. \u201cThey have trade-offs. They have to make a decision: If I\u2019m going to give you $20 million for your infrastructure, that\u2019s $20 million less for your payroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis place is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers parallel only goes so far. Walter and Kasten inherited a core of Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. Mozeliak will work with Mike Trout and a long-touted \u201cyoung core\u201d that has shown by now it is not the foundation of a championship-caliber team.<\/p>\n

No one expects Moreno to spend like the Dodgers do (and even Walter\u2019s fellow owners want a salary cap in an attempt to stop the Dodgers<\/a>). Yet, in St. Louis, Mozeliak built winners without the Cardinals owners ever paying a luxury tax.<\/p>\n

The first step in revitalizing the Angels comes Saturday, in the draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to take the best available player,\u201d Mozeliak said.<\/p>\n

Mozeliak said he is not interested in two recent Angels trends: paying less to a first-round pick in order to spread the savings around longer shots in the lower rounds, or targeting a polished college player in part because he could get to Anaheim in a hurry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not wedded to a high school player or a college player,\u201d Mozeliak said. \u201cI want the best player.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second item on the agenda: the Aug. 3 trade deadline, which would afford Mozeliak the opportunity to collect prospects for such players as pitcher Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano and outfielder Jo Adell.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Moreno nixed a trade<\/a> that would have brought Andy Pages \u2013 then a Dodgers prospect, now an All-Star \u2013 to the Angels.<\/p>\n

In 2023 and 2024, Moreno rebuffed trade offers for Shohei Ohtani that could have returned the likes of Junior Caminero or Jackson Merrill. No player of that caliber would be coming in return for what the Angels have to offer now.<\/p>\n

Mozeliak said the Angels should not consider a trade proposal in isolation, without considering how to flex their major-market muscles to fill whatever hole a trade might create.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we understand what we\u2019re doing today can help make us stronger tomorrow, and then look at potentially what we could do on the free-agent market,\u201d he said, \u201cthat should be something we are doing in parallel thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mozeliak said he does not believe any player should be untouchable. As if on cue, Trout walked by.<\/p>\n

Trade Trout? That\u2019s not happening, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not happening,\u201d Mozeliak said.<\/p>\n

In his hours of conversations with Moreno, Mozeliak said, the topic of whether the owner might sell the team \u201cnever came up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does Moreno appear interested in staying for the long haul?<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Mozeliak said.<\/p>\n

Mozeliak said he had presented Angels President Molly Jolly with a 100-day plan for what the team calls a consulting role: run baseball operations on an interim basis; do a deep dive into how the Angels do things now and how they can do them better; recommend a new general manager. Maybe he stays in that role, or in a supporting role, or he simply leaves when his contract expires in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m certainly confident in what we need to do, and I\u2019m certainly confident this is a market that could be amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting times for me. I\u2019m energized.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m smart enough to know that one person cannot change everything. But one person can begin change, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to start to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Distinguished executives, including the likes of Dave Dombrowski and Andrew Friedman, have wanted no part of the Angels. Then again, Mozeliak is only committed for six months. If Moreno does not do what Mozeliak believes should be done, and if Mozeliak is not allowed to begin that change, he can just walk away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I have that authority,\u201d Mozeliak said, \u201cand I think he understands that he can embrace change, because that is what is going to be required.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on Moreno telling you that?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Mozeliak said.<\/p>\n

The last time the Angels hired an experienced general manager from outside the organization: 35 years ago, when they also looked to St. Louis for Whitey Herzog. That didn\u2019t work. Herzog won a power struggle in the front office, then quit anyway<\/a>, amid disputes with ownership.<\/p>\n

This might work, or might not. But think back to 2020, when then-Angels president John Carpino said this<\/a>: \u201cObviously, we\u2019re not doing it the right way. We\u2019re not winning games. So something is not right in our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carpino retired in April, without ever explaining what was not right in the organization or, based on the standings, repairing it.<\/p>\n

Jolly replaced him and, within two months, secured Moreno\u2019s approval to hire the architect of a World Series championship team to figure out what was not right in the organization, and to fix it.<\/p>\n

In one bold step, the Angels admitted they had a problem and set out a path to remedy it. With three months to go in this wretched season, the MVP of the 2026 Angels is abundantly clear: Molly Jolly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2012, when Mark Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers, team president Stan Kasten declared mediocrity would…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":916396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2379,370231,1582,276,71316,2442,208848,370233,370236,2961,224,5337,56,214686,370230,46750,370234,370235,370232,3007],"class_list":["post-916395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-angels","tag-baseball-operation","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-decade","tag-dodgers","tag-free-agent-market","tag-good-position-player","tag-interim-general-manager","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-mark-walter","tag-moreno","tag-mozeliak","tag-owner","tag-rush-college-player","tag-st-louis-cardinals-team","tag-such-player","tag-team"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116873287892594346","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}