The Los Angeles Angels are expected to act fairly quickly on their managerial search following the 2023 World Series, and have since heard a few candidates throw their name in the running for the position.
Of those have been former New York Mets manager Buck Showalter, who currently has ties to a few members of the Angels front office. The recently hired Dom Chiti as a Minor League pitching coordinator, and the veteran skipper has experience managing teams trying to rebuild from the ground up.
The other is current infield coach Benji Gil, who managed Team Mexico in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He stands as a strong internal candidate, but has yet to receive widespread interest.
The Angels have the luxury of being a team with an open vacancy after firing Phil Nevin, but in reference to Showalter, Buster Onley noted on The Michael Kay Show that he isn’t a lock for the job:
Buster Olney: “I don’t think so. We’ve always seen this with Arte Moreno, the Angels owner, that he goes through the zigs and the zags. The general manager one year is favored, the next year is on double probation. I don’t know if Perry Minasian, the Angels general manager who has a long-standing relationship with Buck Showalter, I don’t know if he’s the one that’s actually going to make the decision here. It may be that in the end it’s Arte Moreno or maybe some of his advisors. Tim Salmon will have a say in that, perhaps, rather than Perry. I think if it was left up to Perry, Buck would have already been announced.”
Moreno should lean on a lot of his advisors or even allow his front office to make the final call. Because at this point of the Angels current path, they’ll need a strong manager in place to navigate murky waters ahead.
Angels ownership could hire someone above Perry Minasian
With a hire at manager expected following the 119th Fall Classic, the Angels recently let go of their assistant general manager in Alex Tamin. But a recent report noted that with Minasian sticking around, he could have another voice in a position above him.
The Angels currently have club president John Carpino handling a lot of the business end of the franchise, while they could afford to have someone more heavily involved in the decision-making process on the baseball end of things.
One name that has been floated around is former Miami Marlins general manager Kim Ng, who became the first woman GM in Major League Baseball history to lead a playoff team.
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