The Los Angeles Angels have found their latest scapegoat.
The Angels have officially fired general manager Perry Minasian, Alden Gonzalez of ESPN reported on Friday. Gonzalez adds that the Angels are now bringing in former St. Louis Cardinals lead executive John Mozeliak as a consultant as they embark on a search for a new GM.
Minasian, who was in the last year of his contract, had served as general manager of the Angels since 2020. But as has been the story of the franchise for quite some time now, the Angels failed to produce a single playoff berth or even a single winning season over that entire span.
Now the owners of MLB’s longest active playoff drought (since 2014), the Angels are once again in the gutter this year. They are tied for the worst record in the American League at 34-48, effectively ending the season in Anaheim before the calendar has even flipped to July.
Minasian clearly was not faultless in the Angels’ continued struggles. Under Minasian’s leadership, the team made ill-fated trades for Jorge Soler, Lucas Giolito, and others, took questionable swings on free agents like Jose Quintana and Robert Stephenson, and most damningly, held onto superstar Shohei Ohtani until Ohtani walked for nothing in free agency after the 2023 season.
But the Angels’ single biggest problem is still the meddling and penny-pinching ways of owner Arte Moreno. The 79-year-old Moreno is now looking for his sixth full-time general manager ever since taking over the team, and the Angels also have dysfunction in plenty of other areas right now (including at the manager position).
