Perry Minasian Made a Hapless Angels Organization Even Worse

Los Angeles fired its GM after a tenure that spanned six seasons, five managers, five top-13 draft picks, 108 more losses than wins and zero playoff berths.

Perry Minasian was fired Friday evening. | Brian Rothmuller/Getty Images

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Working for Angels owner Arte Moreno is a challenge. The infrastructure in place in the organization—spring training facility, analytics, player development, scouting—needs modernizing. That said, GM Perry Minasian’s tenure was so disastrous the Angels could not let him stay behind the wheel of another draft and trade deadline cycle. It’s rare to see a baseball operations point person fired midseason, but this could not have been a surprise given his track record.

Minasian was given six seasons, five managers and five top-13 draft picks and somehow left the organization in worse shape than what he inherited. The Angels were 392–500 in his tenure, including the worst team in franchise history, the 99-loss 2024 Angels. 

His biggest free agent signings were Yusei Kikuchi, a below average starting pitcher, Raisel Iglesias, who had a 4.04 ERA before the Angels quickly dumped his salary on Minasian’s old team, the Braves, the oft-injured Robert Stephenson and soft-tossing Tyler Anderson, who went 18–29 with a 4.53 ERA.

Moreno’s disinclination to spend big and a no-deferred-money policy kept top-tier free agents out of reach. But Minasian had a knack for missing on mid-level free agents and relievers, never more so than this past winter (Yoan Moncada, Drew Pomeranz, Jordan Romano, Kirby Yates, Alek Manoah).

Outside of shortstop Zach Neto, the farm system has been abysmal. His infamous 2021 draft, in which the Angels took nothing but pitchers, yielded only four big leaguers, none of much importance and a combined 2.6 WAR, or a fraction of the yield of Gavin Williams, taken by Cleveland 14 picks after the Angels took Sam Bachman at No. 9.

This year has been another mess with a hodgepodge of a roster under a rookie manager, Kurt Suzuki, working under the disrespect of a one-year contract. The Angels have cycled through 50 players, the most in baseball, with a fundamentally bad team with an older-than-average roster. Their hitters strike out the most in baseball, their pitchers walk the most batters, their baserunning is the worst in baseball (tied with the Blue Jays and Giants) and their defense is the fifth worst.

Former Cardinals GM John Mozeliak, taking over on an interim basis, is a pro who knows his way around the game and can hit the ground running. For such a bad team, the Angels have made almost no trade deadline deals of significance the past two seasons, except for sending Carlos Estevez to the Phillies. Mozeliak should consider all offers, given there is no foundation in place. He needs to have a discussion with Trout to hear out the franchise player on what his future is with the organization and what needs to be done.

Eventually Mozeliak will get around to finding the next GM, though with a lockout looming, Moreno just might ride through it without a manager or GM in place.

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