Now that the season is over, Angels manager Mike Scioscia can exercise an opt-out in his ten-year contract, but he isn’t saying whether he’ll do so, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes. “I’m going to see,” Scioscia said. “I’m not going to comment on anything.”
Of course, the Angels’ season ended today, so that Scioscia would receive a question about this matter today isn’t surprising, and it’s not necessarily meaningful that he’s not yet willing to commit to an answer. MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reported last week that Scioscia was expected to remain in his position, and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets tonight that Scioscia will not exercise his opt-out.
Still, Scioscia’s situation is worth noting, given the news this evening that the Angels plan to hire Billy Eppler as their GM. The Angels’ previous GM, Jerry Dipoto, departed in July after clashing with Scioscia. As Fletcher notes, Eppler likely wouldn’t have the authority to fire Scioscia, but perhaps it’s possible Scioscia might not want to work with a new GM.
Scioscia has three years left on the ten-year, $50MM contract to which he agreed prior to the 2009 season. He will be paid $6MM in each of the next three seasons. Scioscia has managed the Angels for 16 seasons, posting a 1416-1176 overall record and winning the World Series in 2002.
Time for Sosh to go. Appreciate what he’s done for my Angels over the years, but I’m starting to think he isn’t as good a manager as everyone claims him to be. Rumblings are that he wants more of a national league crafted team. Well guess what? If you’re a good manager you make do with what you’re given. Not like Arte hasn’t opened his pocket book. Too old school. Feel sorry for JeDi now that he’s with Seattle…McClendon is even more resistant to analytics.
Actually, most major league teams are playing a similar style to ‘Mike Scioscia baseball’. It’s a low average, low walk, high strikeout era. How do you counter that? Being aggressive, taking the extra base, manufacturing. The Royals are built almost exactly like those Angels teams that made the playoffs year after year. Jerry Dipoto ran himself out of Anaheim by trying to take that philosophy out of Scioscia’s hands when the current era is tailor made for ‘Mike Scioscia baseball’.
I’m betting he opts out. Not that I’m rooting for that, but I wouldn’t blame him for being tired of the perception that it’s more important to him to be the Man than to win. If he does, I would bet the decision was made three months ago, but he wasn’t going to quit on the team until the season was over.
Angels have under performed for quite some time. Change of scenery might do everyone some good. Harper, Scherzer, not a bad gig opening in DC….
I bet if the dodgers end up firing Mattingly then Scioscia opts out.
I don’t know what job would fit him. I can see him in LAD with the Spreadsheet front office…he can’t fire them.