11:29pm: Minasian is seen as the “front-runner,” Rosenthal tweets.
11:03pm: The Angels have narrowed their search for a new GM. They’ll choose between Braves assistant GM Perry Minasian and Mariners AGM Justin Hollander, according to Ken Rosenthal and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic (via Twitter).
Other serious candidates included Jason McLeod of the Cubs and Jared Porter of the Diamondbacks. Both were among the finalists recently removed from consideration, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Another Arizona exec, Amiel Sawdaye, was also among the finalists, Rosenthal adds.
It seems we’ll soon know which of the remaining candidates will get the gig. The Halos will likely announce their choice tomorrow, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Registers reports on Twitter.
The top baseball operations position came open in late September, on the heels of another disappointing season. Owner Arte Moreno elected to cut bait on GM Billy Eppler despite recently extending his contract by one additional year.
Despite a five-year run of losing campaigns under Eppler, the Angels aren’t expected to present a rebuilding opportunity for a new front office leader. The club still features some premium talent, headlined by living legend Mike Trout, with the payroll commitments to match.
Though the Angels reportedly considered a wide array of potential hires, including some with previous experience in a GM seat, the team clearly homed in on a certain archetype as its search progressed. The five finalists are all relatively youthful, rising-star types who’ve yet to run their own department.
What about Brodie
Hope Hollander doesn’t go. He’s done some good stuff in Seattle so far
I’m with you…Hollander is a great evaluator and I’d hate to lose him to a division rival. On the other hand, I’d be happy for him. Sounds like the Braves guy is the likely choice though
I wouldnt worry, it sounds like the Angeks are going to pluck Perry Minasian away from the Braves, unfortunately..
I was really hoping that the Braves were going to be able to keep him around for the long haul, but I’m also not all that surprised that another team signed him away.
The Angels are definitely getting themselves a bright mind and a man with character and integrity. Perry will likely do an excellent job, as long as he is given full autonomy of the roster and he isnt handcuffed by the owner. I think Moreno will ultimately allow Perry to make all the adjustments though, and dont be surprised when he finally makes this team a contender!!
Any gm in LAA will be hand cuffed by Arte
Bruh Minasian is a great pick!!!!!!!
Respect to Hollander but he is a dipoto clone easy pass
Hardly…
Hollander predated Jerry by 5 years in Anaheim, he was a Stoneman hire. Jerry was smart enough to poach him as he left….
What makes you say that?
This guy Perry has been around baseball his whole life his father was manager of the rangers back in the day. Been under AA since 2017 and had strong pedigree for success, he is young and surely will develop the farm and system
Which day? Couldn’t find anything on his father.
I’m sure you never heard of this guy before yesterday. Maybe the day before.
Exactly. People thought Billy Eppler was gonna be good and how’d that turn out? I think the Angels should’ve went to someone with experience but we’ll see
Fred, you are right, you never know.
But the excitement with Eppler was more about his style. The Angels were not an analytics organization and he was someone who was expected to go toe-to-toe with Scioscia.
As far as this guy, I have no idea who he is. it’s hard for me to get excited about a name I don’t know anything about.
Dipoto had the analytics background. I just thought he always leaned too much into it and made terrible draft decisions that hampered his development pipeline pretty much just drafting college players with limited upside. I was excited about Eppler cause his willingness to focus on development through the draft with athletes. Eppler did a good job. It was always going to be a tough job to straddle the line between rebuilding while making the playoffs at the same time. New guy is gonna have that same problem but starting in a much better place than Eppler did with a middle of the road Farm and contracts coming off the books vs ‘the worst farm system ever’ and deep into some crippling contracts.
DiPoto did. He also needed to get away from Arte and Scioscia.
Arte made marketing moves that DiPoto disagreed with.
What draft choices? Moreno cost him two out three first rounders by forcing him to sign Pujols and Hamilton.
World Series here we come!!!!!
Did someone actually use “home” instead of “hone”? Well done.
Yes he did. I have noticed the proofreading department at MLBTR has been slacking lately. However, it’s not as bad as HaloHeaven writers who write at a third grade level at best.
“Homed” is the correct word. “Homed” means to zero in on. “Honed” means to sharpen or refine.
“Homed in on” is perfectly acceptable. Look it up grammar police.
Thanks for the correction. I’ve never heard of the term “homed”. I like learning stuff.
That being said, I have noticed an increase in grammatical errors on MLBTR. I do a lot of writing in my career so I’m hyper-sensitive to it. It’s my burden.
Haha. I just showed my wife the same thing in the article, and then I saw your comment.
Getting someone from the braves front office isn’t gonna be too exciting for anyone. I know liberty handcuffs them, but d be nervous he’d carryover that same mentality to the Angels who have more flexibility when it comes to spending. They need to lock down some pitching soon. Too much talent on that roster to not be significantly better
Take a look at the worst contracts of the last few decades and Angels have a monopoly. Josh Hamilton, C.J. Wilson, Vernon Wells, Pujols and let’s circle back around to Trout/Rendon’s lengthy deals. Maybe they need some handcuffs, not all are bad. Maybe some fuzzy ones…seriously though, Minasian has focused on scouting and development for multiple organizations – something LAA has undervalued – and desperately needs. Allow Moreno to write checks, Maddon keep maddening — just get even an average farm system they can fill holes with. The bar is pretty low.
CJ Wilson was not a bad contract. Why people keep bringing up that contract is beyond me.
He made the All-Star team. And his first three years here had a sub four ERA. A 6.17 winning pct, made 98 starts and pitched almost 600 innings.
Year four he got hurt, but still pitched over 130 innings with a sub four ERA.
The trade of Vaughn was horrible, but the signing of Pujols led to three billion dollar tv deal. Hard to say that was a bad move.
Forgive me, I’m a Braves fan. I’m jaded by our most expensive FA deal being (don’t call me) BJ Upton ($75.25M). I’m desensitized to frugality and have been conditioned to hate paying a player anywhere near their fair-market value. I’m a product of my environment.
I’m with you on Wilson.. Dude performed to that contract.
You can make arguments there were warning signs for the Pujols decline in his last year in St Louis but no one expected his body to start breaking down the way it did. They went an extra year over St Louis to get him away from them. It wasn’t some crazy over bid some people frame it as that everyone was screaming that was dumb at the time. It was an overpay but still expects to be better than it turned out. To your point the Angels did receive some non-baseball related benefits from it too.
The myth of the Pujols TV deal never dies. That TV deal had been in negotiations for months before Pujols was even a free agent. The fact that it was announced after the signing does not mean one caused the other.
That be as it may, at least his contract is off the books after 2021.
Perry will do a wonderful job if Moreno let’s him run the show. Perry has a long history in this game, way before his Braves days. Angel fans should be happy if he is the new GM. I don’t know Hollander, so I can’t say as much. It does look as though they have gotten two bright people in the game as their top picks. Rooting for Trout to finally get a chance to make an impact in some playoff runs.
I’m hoping for the best, but Arte’s MO is meddling with personnel moves. The guy just can’t help getting in his own teams way.
Earth has the best tacos.
Prov356 and the worst tacos.
And California still can’t make a decent bagel.
Minasian is a good talent evaluator but to go from that level to basically President of Baseball Ops seems like a big jump. I’m surprised the Angels didn’t go with two separate hires. Maybe that’s so that Arte can be the main guy.
According to the OC Register, Manasian has been officially named the Angels new GM. Now on to signing some quality starters and bullpen pitchers.