The Angels on Friday fired GM Perry Minasian and hired John Mozeliak as interim GM and baseball operations consultant with the goal to “help the Angels find their next GM, not to keep the job himself.” Mozeliak said that there had “been a few weeks of discussions” with Angels President Molly Jolly, and it “intensified in the last week,” leading up to Friday’s firing of Minasian (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 6/27). Mozeliak intends to “audit” the Angels in this new role alongside Jolly, with “plans to hire a general manager by the time Mozeliak’s contract is up ‘sometime in December.’” Mozeliak understands that the Angels have “lacked direction in recent seasons.” He asked for “patience in rebuilding the team alongside Jolly” (L.A. TIMES, 6/27).
The Angels were 392-500 under Minasian, failing to win more than 77 games in any season. Minasian was “saddled with one of the worst farm systems in baseball, and the Angels missed chances to upgrade it by failing to trade from their major league roster -- most notably, holding on to Shohei Ohtani," who left for the Dodgers. However, owner Arte Moreno was “responsible for many of the choices that hampered the development of the baseball operation under Minasian.” The Angels also cut payroll in recent years, which Moreno “acknowledged was because of revenue limitations from the changing television landscape” (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 6/27).
