Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak informs Jeff Fletcher of the SoCal News Group that the club will hire a full-time general manager for the 2027 season and that Mozeliak himself will not be that general manager. No one has been interviewed yet as the process is still in its early stages. Mozeliak will step down when the new front office chief is hired, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “That’s still to be determined, but I guess I’ll help,” Mozeliak said when asked if he would be involved in the search, per Sam Blum of The Athletic.
In June, general manager Perry Minasian was fired and Mozeliak took over the front office as interim general manager. Mozeliak previously spent many years leading the Cardinals front office. September brought the stunning news that longtime owner Arte Moreno would sell the club to Stan Kroenke, owner of several other sports franchises, including the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. This sale should be finalized in early 2027.
News of the sale came as the franchise was in transition in many ways. As mentioned, Mozeliak was running the front office on an interim basis. Kurt Suzuki managed the club in 2026 but on a one-year contract. At the deadline, the Angels made forward-looking moves but stopped short of a complete rebuild. Jose Soriano And Jo Adell were returned elsewhere but commercial candidates Reid Detmers And Zach Neto stay.
In recent weeks, it was unclear what exactly the new owner had in mind for the future. Would Suzuki stay in the dugout? Would Mozeliak stay to run the front office? Would the club continue to sell major league players?
Some responses poured in today. The club announced a few hours ago that it had declined an option on Suzuki’s contract and would begin searching for a new manager and coaching staff. Suzuki was offered a special assistant role in the organization. He then told Fletcher he was unsure whether to accept, as he had received some interest in jobs at other organizations.
The front office plan is now also clearer. The club will be looking for a new leader to guide it into the future. It’s unclear how long the search will last, but probably not too long. Mozeliak says the new signing will decide the club’s next manager. It is also fair to assume that the new general manager will also have a strong influence on the club’s plans for a return to competition.
The Angels have been mired in mediocrity for some time. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2014 and haven’t had a winning season since 2015. Those losing seasons came despite the club having Mike Trout all the time, with other star players like Shohei Ohtani, Albert Pujols And Anthony Rendon also spend time with the angels.
Despite these difficult years, the Halos resisted rebuilding. There was some logic to this when Trout and Ohtani shared the roster, because it’s hard to justify a takedown when you have arguably the two best players in the world. But Ohtani has been gone for three years now and the results keep getting worse. The Angels have lost at least 90 games over the past three seasons, including 100 in 2026.
As mentioned, there were signs that the club was perhaps opening the door to a rebuild this summer. Soriano was traded to the Blue Jays even though he is under club control through 2028. Adell was sent to the Guardians despite being under club control through 2027. Those two trades resulted in the Angels scoring four prospects. They had Arjun Nimmala, Eddie Micheletti And Angel Rivero in the Soriano agreement and Jacob Cozart in the Adell exchange.
Detmers and Neto were in somewhat similar situations to these two. Detmers is set to hit free agency after 2028 and Neto after 2029. Those two are still on the Angels roster. If the new front office leader doesn’t see a path leading to a short-term rivalry for the Angels, then it would make sense for them to end up on the trading block.
Trout has also been the subject of numerous trade discussions over the years, although most of them have been made by fans of other clubs, as opposed to substantiated rumors. Trout’s contract has a no-trade clause and he has always said he wants to stay in Anaheim. Perhaps he would reconsider if the club launched a multi-year rebuilding project, but as recently as September he said he had not changed his stance.
Although today brought a little more clarity on the future of the franchise, there are still many unanswered questions as the winds of change blow through Anaheim.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
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