ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels have shown their general manager the door midway through what has become a sixth straight underwhelming season for the ball club.
The cellar-dwelling Angels tapped former Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak on Friday to serve as interim GM and baseball operations consultant. According to team president Molly Jolly, Mozeliak will handle day-to-day baseball decisions while also helping guide the search for a permanent replacement.
“Perry has been a valued leader who worked tirelessly over the last six years to strengthen our baseball operations department,” Jolly said. “I am grateful for his dedication, insight and many contributions to our organization.”
Minasian stepped into the Angels’ front office role back in November 2020, but the franchise has shown little improvement during his time at the helm under owner Arte Moreno.
The Angels have now endured 10 consecutive losing seasons and 11 straight seasons without reaching the playoffs — both the longest such streaks in Major League Baseball. Their minor league system remains ranked among the worst in the sport, a problem that existed before Minasian ever arrived.
The defining moment of his tenure came when two-time AL MVP Shohei Ohtani departed for the Los Angeles Dodgers following the 2023 season. The Angels failed to trade Ohtani for prospects before he hit free agency, a missed opportunity that proved costly.
The flurry of moves Minasian made around the 2023 trade deadline drew criticism for appearing disorganized. The team held onto Ohtani — a call Moreno played a significant role in — while trading away several prospects in a push for the postseason.
That gamble backfired badly. The Angels went just 8-19 in August 2023, falling so far out of contention that the team placed multiple players on waivers to get their payroll under the luxury tax threshold.
Currently, Los Angeles is tied for last in the American League at 34-48 heading into Friday night’s game against the Athletics at Angel Stadium. The Angels had held the worst record in the majors for much of this season, following a franchise-record 99 losses in 2024 — their first year without Ohtani.
During Minasian’s entire tenure, the Angels never won more than 77 games and never finished better than third in the AL West division.
His time with the organization was also marked by managerial turbulence. Minasian clashed with manager Joe Maddon early on, which ultimately led to Maddon’s dismissal during a brutal losing stretch in the 2022 season. Managers Phil Nevin and Ron Washington each followed but neither lasted more than two seasons. Last fall, Minasian hired Kurt Suzuki — a member of his own front-office staff with no prior managing experience — on a one-year deal, openly acknowledging that their futures with the team were linked. Ray Montgomery has served as interim manager in 2025.
Budget constraints forced Minasian to fill out this year’s roster with bargain-priced players, many of them coming back from significant injuries. That group included pitchers Alek Manoah, Jordan Romano, Drew Pomeranz, Kirby Yates and Brent Suter, along with outfielder Josh Lowe and infielders Yoan Moncada and Adam Frazier.
The results were largely disappointing. Romano and Pomeranz were released outright, while Manoah, Lowe and Moncada failed to deliver.
The biggest free-agent signing of Minasian’s tenure was a three-year, $63 million deal with left-handed pitcher Yusei Kikuchi ahead of the 2025 season. Kikuchi made the All-Star team last year but has been out since late April with a shoulder injury. Minasian also locked up reliever Robert Stephenson to a three-year, $33 million contract before the 2024 season, but Stephenson is also sidelined this year due to an elbow injury.
Jolly and Mozeliak are expected to address the media at a news conference on Saturday.
Minasian got his start in baseball as a clubhouse attendant with the Rangers before working his way up through the front offices of the Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays under the mentorship of Alex Anthopoulos. He had never interviewed for a general manager position before Moreno selected him to replace Billy Eppler — part of a pattern in which Moreno has repeatedly hired GMs with little or no prior experience in the role during his more than two decades of ownership.
Mozeliak, meanwhile, departed the Cardinals last fall after 30 years with St. Louis, including the final 18 overseeing baseball operations.
