The Los Angeles Angels fired general manager Perry Minasian on Friday, ending a six-year tenure that never yielded a winning season and reaching outside the organization for one of baseball's most experienced executives to help chart what comes next.
Six seasons, no winning record
Minasian, who took over the Angels' baseball operations after the 2020 season, leaves with the club at 34-48, tied for the worst record in the American League, according to ESPN. In none of his completed seasons did the Angels finish above .500, and last year the team lost 99 games — a franchise record. He was in the final year of his contract, a detail that made the decision to move on a straightforward one.
Molly Jolly, the Angels' first-year team president, offered a measured farewell. She credited Minasian as a leader who "worked tirelessly" over six years to strengthen the club's baseball-operations department, ESPN reported. The parting was cordial, but it was not a surprise: the Angels have languished near the bottom of the standings for most of the season.
A heavyweight steps in
To steer the front office in the interim, the Angels are bringing in John Mozeliak as a consultant to the baseball-operations department. His mandate is broad: oversee day-to-day baseball operations, help refine the organization's overall strategy and assist in the search for a permanent general manager. The role is expected to run through the end of the calendar year.
Mozeliak is no caretaker hire. He spent nearly two decades running the St. Louis Cardinals, a stretch that produced a World Series title and a long run of contention, and he built a reputation as one of the sport's sharpest roster architects. Bringing in an executive of his standing — even temporarily — signals that the Angels want a credible baseball voice shaping the franchise's direction while they conduct a full search.
A franchise searching for a path
The Angels have cycled through general managers and strategies for years without landing on a formula that works. The club has not reached the postseason since 2014, a drought that has unfolded despite some of the most talented players of the era passing through Anaheim. A roster built around expensive star power has too often been left thin around the edges, and the results have shown up in the standings.
Minasian's firing does not, by itself, fix any of that. The harder work — evaluating the roster ahead of the trade deadline, assessing a thin farm system and hiring a general manager with a coherent long-term plan — is only beginning. But by handing the keys, however briefly, to an executive with Mozeliak's track record, the Angels are signaling they understand the scale of the rebuild in front of them, and that they intend to take the search for a new direction seriously.
