Though the impending free agency of Shohei Ohtani remains the biggest story of the offseason in Anaheim, the club parted ways with manager Phil Nevin at the end of the 2023 campaign, leading the club to begin a search for his replacement. The search has already turned up a handful of candidates including recently-fired Mets manager Buck Showalter, who has both expressed interest in the job and seen that interest reciprocated by Angels brass. Infield coach Benji Gil and longtime Angels outfielder Darin Erstad have also previously been floated as potential candidates for the position.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale provided an update on the club’s managerial search this morning, and in doing so put forth three more candidates: five-time All Star Torii Hunter, who patrolled the outfield in Anaheim for five seasons; 1993 Rookie of the Year Tim Salmon, who spent his entire 14-year big league career with the Angels; and veteran coach Ron Roenicke, who spent seven seasons as a third base coach in Anaheim under Mike Scioscia.
Nightengale gives particular mention to Hunter, noting that the 48-year-old is “tremendously regarded” by Angels owner Arte Moreno. Moreno is known to be among the most hands-on owners in the game, so his endorsement would surely be a notable piece of any managerial candidate’s resume. That being said, Hunter lacks experience in the dugout beyond his playing career, which would conflict with the Angels’ previously-reported preference for an experienced manager to take over in Nevin’s stead. Salmon faces a similar roadblock, though he’s served as head coach of Scottsdale Christian Academy in Phoenix since 2015.
If the Angels are valuing experience in their managerial search, Roenicke certainly fits the bill. In addition to his aforementioned tenure with the Angels as a third base coach and an eight-year playing career in the majors, the 67-year-old has served as manager for both the Brewers and Red Sox in the past, while also serving as a coach with the Dodgers and in Boston throughout his post-playing career. He currently serves as a special assistant in the Dodgers’ front office. Nightengale suggests that Roenicke, along with Gil and Showalter, may be in line for formal interviews with the club. It’s unclear if Hunter would also be in line for a potential interview, though Nightengale reports Erstad and Salmon’s candidacies as merely having been “discussed” by Angels brass.
Whoever ultimately takes the reins of the Angels dugout this offseason, they’ll have their work cut out for them in 2024. The Angels finished with identical 73-89 records in both 2022 and 2023, and are at risk of losing a superstar, two-way talent in Ohtani this offseason. Even if the club manages to retain Ohtani, he won’t pitch in 2024, leaving the club with a vacancy at the front of the rotation on top of holes to fill in the bullpen. While the club has a solid position player group, it lacks depth that is particularly necessary for a club that’s seen frequent trips to the injured list for Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon, and other veteran players in recent seasons.
Rendon is washed up! He got his money now he’s a waste of a roster spot.
Roenicke’s recent gigs have been managing tanking teams until they improve and then getting fired so a bigger name can take over. So this should be a job for life.
Roenicke is MLB’s version of roving GMs in the hotel industry who are sent to clean up the mess in a failing hotel and get it working well enough to sell off.
As a Sox fan, I was a little turned off how they used the guy to take over in 2020 only to let him go once again for Alex Cora.
I’m not a Cora hater. In fact, I liked the move to rehire him; I just didn’t like how they made Roenicke the fall guy.
I’ve been on that side of jobs several times before and it’s not fun.
They could do worse than Buck.
Roenicke is an interesting name that might get a try, however. Depends on which direction they want to go or if they want to stay in house.
Yeah but Angels are turning into a manager retirement home…
Great screen name +1
Buck S I know you wanted to manage again but you just left one bad situation. Why jump Into a other one both the LAA and New York Mets.
Have owners that are very smart business people because they make a ton of money to buy a major league baseball team.
However both owners want to play GM & Owner a recipe for disaster. Look at the Atlanta Braves get Ted Turner out of the front office and you start winning consecutively
Hunter would be terrible. The guy has said some really crappy stuff over the years.
If they are considering 67 yo Ron Roenicke, why not consider DeMarlo Hale (61) or Tony DeFrancesco (60)? Both are former successful minor league managers who have also been big league bench coaches, Hale most recently with the Indians and DeFrancesco with the Mets and Astros.
Maybe I am partial to former Eastern League ballplayers, and am rooting for Torey Lovullo to win the WS.
Tough EL weather, tough minor league travel, tough years making tough decisions make for tough managers.
Unless he’s been really picky, nobody hiring Hale baffles me. The guy knows the game and should have been a manager a decade ago or more.
I agree. Hale seems like a very good baseball man, respected and experienced. He certainly deserves an opportunity based on his collective attributes. I would like to see him get the position with the Angels.
Astros were all ready to hire someone today. But they realized they weren’t world serious and decided to kick the can down the road
2024 might be their last hurrah
I hope Buck gets the job and Arte lets the grown-ups run the club.
Seems like a no lose situation.
Get MLB level experience. If you win you’re a genius. If not, the entire baseball world blames the bad owner.
Wouldn’t surprise me if it goes to Gil, wouldn’t mind kapler his teams out performed the talent on his roster.
Gil or Kapler would be awful. Roenicke is a little too old.
Who would you suggest? Gil did a good job with Mexico in the wbc. Not sure if there’s many candidates out there
Why do people use a 4 games of the WBC as measuring stick?
All he was great in the WBC!!! Yeah let’s hire him. WTF?
He’s been a coach in the minors as well, it’s the same as using been a manager 20+ years measuring stick. What about La Russa he did a great job for the white Sox. A lot of managers have been hired with no experience.
Mexico played 6 games in the WBC, winning 4 of them and was eliminated by the eventual champions.
Benji managed in the minors, in the Olympics in 2021, and for 7 seasons the Caribbean league. He has won the Mexican Pacific (Winter) League 4 times in his 7 year managing career. I believe he is the winningest manager in the Mexican Pacific League history.
Benji deserves a shot. I just don’t think Moreno is smart enough to allow his GM to hire him. He wants a name that fans recognize.
Erstad is interesting, the rest of this field is very uninspiring. Just go with Buck, he actually wants the job and is a proven big league manager
They already had that in Joe Madden. That being said, good luck to them attracting Ohtani and top free agents hiring someone who’s never managed before. That’ll send a clear signal.
“Uncle Joe” wears very thin, very quickly, especially with a veteran roster. Buck and Joe Maddon are not the same
They can’t afford Ohtani anyway.
Sell the team, Arte!
The Angels are a complete mess. Arte Moreno has taken the team from a world series winner in 2002 to buying the team in 2003 and making them the worst run franchise in professional sports. Yes, he does dole out big contracts (Pujold, Hamilton, Trout, Rendon), but that is all he does on the positive side.
How he has systematically destroyed the team:
Treats minor leaguers like second class citizens – so much so that a bunch of them complained and the Angels finally made changes
Cut player development
Cut scouting – The Angels’ prospects rarely pan out
Worst spring training facility
Refused to trade Ohtani at the deadline for multiple prospects to build for the future (All Moreno cares about are current ticket sales)
Refuses to rebuild and keeps the Angels trapped in mediocrity
Angel fans are partly to blame. All Moreno understands is MONEY. Fans keep attending the games (Angels are always in top 3 for attendance despite being habitually non-competitive). Angel fans need to stop attending games and revenues will decrease. Until then it will remain he same.
Moreno keeps changing over GM’s, Managers and coaches. The problem is systemic and cannot be fixed under his ownership. He needs to sell the team so a real baseball team can be built. Until then the Angels will continue to be boys trying to compete with grown men.
You have some valid points but the “worst run franchise in professional sports”? Not even the worst run franchise in baseball. Baseball has a lot of problems and Arte isn’t the biggest one.
Chalk, people love hyperbole. Except the Angels, No team in baseball has not lost 100, the Angles have never lost more than 95.
Nuts think this is the worst run team in sports.
I wouldn’t say the Angels prospects rarely pan out. The only recent prospect who didn’t pan out is Adell. The other players they have brought up (some rather quickly) have made contributions to the big league club. Most of their pitchers were drafted and developed in their system and Neto, Schanuel, etc. Helped cover some injuries this year. Now panning out means over the course of their career and it is still early, but these players have stepped up and took major league roster spots.
The real problem is that the players seem often overrated or under perform once they are brought up. That could be more about the players than management, but if they weren’t so rushed, they might have better results. The last couple years they have felt the pressure knowing they only had Ohtani for so long. So they rushed some prospects and had some bad injury luck. But overall I would say the Angels get a lot of hate about drafting that is unwarranted. They are drafting players that make the majors pretty successfully, they just are not having on field results like other teams. I wouldn’t necessarily say they are right or wrong, but a desire to compete and win doesn’t make them the worst run organization. Atleast they are trying to field a competitive team. They just need better results. It wouldn’t surprise me in a couple years if they didn’t start winning more without Ohtani honestly. Once the Rendon contract goes away and they can spread the money out better, they might have better results from their homegrown players.
Don’t bury Adell yet. It took Ward awhile, sometimes it takes awhile.
I’m not burying adell just that he was hyped as the next big thing and hasn’t backed up that hype thus far. I am not an Angels fan so I don’t know their complete transaction to date history, but saying they have produced no homegrown stars even internationally is a bit of a stretch. They have had players that they have signed that have been solid players just not star level compared to other teams. Most of their current roster has been drafted by the team so even if they are not stars they have developed role players through their minors transactions and drafts.
He has serious bat to ball and plate awareness issues.
I don’t believe in him anymore. But crazier things have happened. Adolis Garcia for example.
He wasn’t hyped as the next big thing. The Angels brought him up at a very young age. Thus fans expectcted him to be another Trout. The media never hyped him.
They don’t graduate any youngsters because they don’t have any adequate player development or coaching resources in the minors. That’s why they pick guys who are already coached up & basically ready to go. Moreno runs a bare bones operation.
Any? Andy Schatzley at Rocket City is more than adequate.
Wow, you don’t know the Angels very well. Here is a snippet from a well written article in the LA Times. I would be interested to hear your thoughts AFTER reading this article…….
Yes, worst run franchise in professional sports…….
The Angels have not produced a homegrown star through the draft in 12 years. Their last front-line regular acquired as an international amateur was shortstop Erick Aybar, who signed in 2002 and last played for the Angels in 2015.
Here is the article in its entirety so you can see the entire depth of the Arte Moreno ownership debacle……
latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2022-08-23/angels-…
Home grown star. Their highest pick this century has was Bachman.
When you don’t have a top ten pick, it’s hard to draft stars.
Stars….give me a break. That’s your definition. You people are crazy.
The team called him up when it was going nowhere. everyone was trying to hit homeruns. With proper coaching he can be a high average, high obp hitter with some power. It is just powe and strikeouts now. Sad!
Refused to trade Ohtani at the deadline for multiple prospects to build for the future
===========================
I suggested that the Angels trade Trout two years ago, and the Angels were kind of unanimous that they should definitely not trade him.
IMO, Arte just needs to hire Ng as President of Operations given her experience. In that in only 2 years, she built the Marlins into contenders &, adeptly, picked the right manager to do the job as well. So…yes Arte, show everyone you are serious by putting competent BB people in charge & allow her to convince Ohtani to stay & to hold Perry more accountable. As despite drafting some players that show promise & making some organizational tweaks behind the scenes, Perry (going into this 4th year as GM) simply hasn’t done enough of the right things to help this team to compete nor contend. Not to mention the questionable decisions he made at the trade deadline (which then lead to an emabarrassing sell-off) that left many wondering WTF?
Gonna go out on a limb and assume Moreno is “old school” when it comes to adequate gender representation in the front office & likely would never hire a woman in a GM role. He just seems waaay traditional to me.
Not so sure Ng “built” the Marlins into playoff contenders if you read articles that actually appeared on ML Traderumors…..not to say she’s inept, but too say she built them into contenders is to ignore the player mistakes she also made while getting some player moves correct…….luck does play into success too……..
Their Py W/L v payroll over the last few years:
70-$89
72-$82
70-$114
75-$129
They are about 50% more expensive than two years ago, with 3 more wins.
If your counting on Rendon returning to form with or without injury thats a bad sign
Don Mattingly?
The Angels are living in the past. Will they get over the 2002 team already? We get it they won. But baseball is totally different now. When they brought all the 02 people last year to spring how did that work out? And they did bring in Hunter too eventhough he wasn’t part. So Moreno absolutely runs which players get invited around or who gets dissed like a Weaver or even a Rod Carew. These favorites that he plays are embarrassing. The Diamond Backs last won in 2001. But they don’t seem to re-live the 01 championship like the Angels do the 02 championship. They blew it by having Nevin coach last year. They could have had a pick of great managers with Ohtani coming into his last year and some hope but they stuck w Nevin.
I guess you never heard of the Yankees touting 27 Wor
I guess you never heard of the Yankees touting 27 World Series.
Give Benji Gil this opportunity, he’s won everywhere he’s managed, knows the organization, is bilingual and was one good closer away from winning the WBC. Has paid his dues
Came here to say this. Massive experience coaching Mexican League & World Baseball Classic. Players go all out for him.
Do we have anyone that speaks Spanish? I guess Rendon, but he only plays 30 games.
Minasian is in over his head and I think Showalter is the one that is most likely to have influence over how he builds a roster.
So I’m rooting for Buck.
Mina wants his own puppet. I doubt Buck gets the job.
Chris Woodward
Would that be another maddon situation, I feel like Buck wouldn’t take any crap, maybe have some tension with minasian, and Arte meddling with the team. Definitely one of the better choices, and perry is probably on his way out soon.
Depends on the direction Arte is taking. Is he tanking to build up the farm, lower payroll as much as possible and sell the team? Then Roenicke. Is Arte going to let Minasian do his job and give him a decent payroll? Then Showalter.
He is tanking but he is unable to build up the farm.
The idea of Salmon managing Trout feels kinda fishy to me.
Excellent observation you get a like!
It’s flat out disgusting!! Hiring Salmon would be the worst thing in franchise history!!
Angels should look at Aaron Boone, Boone grew up in Orange County…..He knows how work with the front office too. Come to think of it, they can also bring Cashman and he can do mountain climbing on the Matterhorn at Disneyland.
Let Arte himself manage the team. How bad could he possibly be… the Angels missing the postseason?
I’d love to see Benji Gil as the manager of the Angels. He’s smart, the players love him and he’s had experience managing in Mexico.
Surprised no one has brought up Dino Ebel as a potential managerial candidate.
If Salmon is hired as head coach, my lifelong days as an Angels fan is over!!
DO NOT HIRE SALMON UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!!!!