9:54pm: Rosenthal provides an overview of the situation, writing that “he and his staff viewed Scioscia and the coaches as practically insubordinate” in declining to utilize statistical information.
9:15am: The current situation is “chaotic,” tweets Passan, with “high-ranking members of the organization” unsure whether or not Dipoto is still the general manager.
9:07am: Dipoto cleared out his office and told members of his staff he was resigning, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports.
9:01am: A second source tells Crasnick that Dipoto is leaving the organization. (Twitter link.)
2:21am: Jerry Dipoto is “definitely out” as Angels GM after apparently resigning his post last night, sources tell ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. Multiple Angels players entered last night’s game under the impression that Dipoto was no longer at the helm, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports tweets.
While the club has yet to make anything official, multiple reports emerged over night suggesting that change was afoot. MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reported that Dipoto was considering resigning in the wake of the Angels’ organizational tensions. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, meanwhile, tweeted that two sources told him Dipoto had packed up his office (though he noted the possibility that Dipoto might simply have been acting “out of emotion”). Crasnick tweeted that strife between Dipoto and manager Mike Scioscia had only increased since Rosenthal reported earlier this week that the two again weren’t getting along (after having also had significant disagreements in 2012). Crasnick also indicated that Dipoto approached Angels owner Arte Moreno with an ultimatum that “backfired.”
With the Halos experiencing a somewhat underwhelming start to the year, tensions apparently boiled over recently. According to a Rosenthal report, a pair of meetings called by Dipoto — one with Scioscia and his staff, and the other will both uniformed staff and players — turned “contentious” last weekend. The club’s top baseball decision maker reportedly drew strong reactions from an unnamed coach as well as Hall of Fame-bound first baseman Albert Pujols.
The immediate issue seemed to involve the manner in which information on in-game decisions (e.g., shifting, strategies against certain hitters) was distributed to players. But Rosenthal raised the possibility that there were deeper philosophical and relational differences between the club’s two key leaders.
The working relationship between Dipoto and Scioscia was once said to be nearly irreconcilable, but they had seemingly worked together in at least a reasonably workable truce. When asked about the report earlier this week, Scioscia said that the pair continued to “work together the same way that we’ve worked the last couple years” (via Gonzalez, on Twitter).
In recent days, however, those former hostilities had seemingly been rekindled. Two club officials spoke anonymously with Yahoo! Sports’ Tim Brown, with one telling him that there were “a lot of closed doors” around the club’s facility Tuesday, given the persistent tension.
The second source indicated that he or she felt the end result could be rather drastic change. “Something’s going to give this time,” said the source. “Looks irreparable.” Owner Arte Moreno had managed to patch things up previously, at least for a good stretch, but it remains to be seen what can be salvaged this time around.
Then, there’s the reported involvement of Pujols, the team’s highest-paid player, who has finally played up to his massive contract this year. The highly respected veteran said today that he was not going to comment on what had gone on in the clubhouse, as Gonzalez reported.
But Pujols did address the idea, as reported by Rosenthal, that he had said that the club simply does not have as good a roster as it did last year. As Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times tweeted, Pujols said he would never disrespect his teammates in the manner implied in that supposed comment. According to Gonzalez’s sources, however, Rosenthal’s report was quite accurate (Twitter link).
Regardless of what actually happened, there’s yet another layer to the controversy. Gonzalez writes that there was “anger” among the players that the story was leaked in the first place. And Pujols also called it “really embarrassing” (to whoever revealed the information) that the story had reached the public sphere. “We’re supposed to be a family here,” he said.
Ladies and gentlemen, a scapegoat.
How so Dipoto resigned, and from the looks of it he did so quite abruptly. This was not a planned move.
It is quite probable that he resigned due to the fact that he was being blamed and berated by others in the organization for the state of the Angels season. Some people don’t want to work in a hostile environment.
Yet another of Moreno’s bad decisions was giving Sciosia that 10y deal. Another has been serial neglect of the farm system over the last dozen or so years for the most part.
As for Sciosia going by his “feel” over using today’s numbers? I have a classic of his leading to a massive blunder.. His leading to giving away Mike Napoli for that albatros of a Vernon Wells contract, just because he like jeff Mathis’s game behind the plate. One would have thought Moreno would have figured out then Sciosia’s ‘feels” were full of beans, but I guess he is a slow learner?
The Angels had a 22 year relationship with the Cedar Rapids Kernels in the Midwest League…but lost the contract due to neglect of the farm system. Cedar Rapids was more than happy to make a switch.
Agreed.. When the Wells trade took place the entire baseball world was baffled.. Wells was still considered a decent player at the time but massively overpaid.. The fact that the Angels took on all of his contract except for $5 million or so and still sent a quality player like Napoli and a lesser in Juan Rivera back was a massive overpay.. Especially since Wells made somewhere around $26 million in 2011 and Napoli made around $5.5 million (Those are close guesses seeing as how I am too lazy to research right now..) I remember in 2011 after the Jays had flipped Napoli to the Rangers he had a big breakout season and Wells had a pretty lackluster one.. The Angels finished 5 games out of the playoffs that year and Napoli finished with a 5.4 WAR and Wells had 0.7 WAR.. So, very loosely you can say that trade single handedly cost the Angels a playoff birth that year. Plus with the $20 million difference in player cost the Angels had plenty of money and prospects available to pickup anyone (Beltran, Gomes, Rasmus, Bourne, K-Rod and Jimenez changed hands that year) they wanted at the deadline to solidify their playoff chances.. You could say that it was a long term blessing in disguise though.. Considering that the only reason they went after Wells was because they missed out on Carl Crawford.. Had they signed him they would still be held down by that contract.. But, then again you could say that had they had Crawford’s contract holding them down then they would not have signed Hamilton.. His contract is going to effect their payroll for several more years..
Look no further than this June’s draft. The Angels tried to save money by taking a catcher up front….but they didn’t even manage to take the best catcher available at that point. It just rang of Scioscia pulling strings on his wants for grit behind the plate.
It would be awesome if the angels rehired bill stoneman as GM again.
Messy
I find it hard to believe Scioscia doesn’t look at and take in the sabermetric data. He is a smart guy, he has a computer science degree so I would think he is a logical person. If you look at the Angels struggles this year they have nothing to do with giving runs up. They just can’t hit, and some of that is on Dipoto himself and a few of the trades he has made. The main being bringing in Joyce would has done nothing
Doesn’t help having a meddling owner doing your job in large contract scenarios. Hamilton, Pujols….Pujols is contributing… But that contract is lead.
REHIRE STONEMAN???? Let’s not get crazy here……
Wonder if DiPoto will be an option for Baltimore next off season once Douquette goes to Toronto. He was rumored for the Baltimore GM position before ultimately choosing Anaheim. Who would have thought Angelos would be easier to work with?
Terrible timing. Who’s at the helm to get the Angels the bat they need for the stretch run?
P.S. Bring back Eddie Bane!
Same people that have been at the helm and letting DiPoto play GM….Moreno and Scioscia.
Terrible timing indeed. Hopefully Arte doesn’t hire an interim GM that ruins all the work Dipoto did
What exactly Did Dipoto do? His trades are suspect Free Agents……….. CJ is his not Arte
He Restocked the top of the farm system with Heaney, Tropeano and Newcomb
Howie for Heaney. Conger for Tropeano. Brought in Gott and Street. Trumbo for Skaggs and Santiago. Basically he has restocked the pitching depth and refused to make foolish trades. That is a lot more than the previous regime did.
I thought we over paid for Street, which granted is just my opinion and isn’t necessarily accepted as fact.
However, I also thought the Josh Rutledge trade was pretty foolish, and everyone agrees with that.
As a Rangers fan, I hoped Jerry would’ve won out on this power struggle. How he made it this long boggles the mind.
DiPoto was their only chance. I hope Scioscia hires Tommy Lasorda and they close down the analytics department. That will be a dumpster fire worth watching. Good luck Arte, you’ll need it.
Great example of a manager getting too much power.
First he had a large role in trading Pedro Martinez for Delino Deshields as a manager.
He got a chance as interim GM and did Paul Konerko for a reliever, Ted Lilly for Grudzielanek, and Beltre promoted early.
Why use any sort of analysis when you plan on tossing money at the situation in an attempt to compensate. Teams get lucky from time to time.
If Moreno had some guts he’d call in Scioscia today and fire him. I’m not taking DiPotos side….but as owner I wouldn’t allow a manager directing my front office staff around. If this is allowed then why not just make Scioscia the GM? Because if he isn’t..then they’ll continue to have a puppet in the GM role.
The inevitable removal of Jerry Dipoto as GM of the Angels demonstrates yet again the problem with the Angels. It is amazing that ownership supports a manager and coaching staff who believes that statistics are worthless. Funny, 29 other teams in MLB have accepted the value of statistics. I guess that is why the Angels are a .500 team in 3rd place.
A .500 team in third place with a payroll approaching $150 million…
That payroll is that high because Arte decided to play GM and get Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton.
It’d be hilarious if Dipoto quits, they get a yes-man GM, and the Angels basically become irrelevant for the next 10 years.
You’re last point is invalid. Out of those 29 other teams that value the use of statistics, 17 teams have a worse record than the Angels. The Angels are 12/30 in win%. They’re “non usage” of statistics, statistically makes them better than 57% of baseball.
Is that damning with faint praise?
If they did use them, then perhaps they would be higher in the categories that you stated?
And Josh Hamilton sits back and sips his tea