Los Angeles Angels lose Bogar, hire Eric Chavez to fill void

The Los Angeles Angels lost a third member of their front office team assembled by former General Manager Jerry Dipoto. Tim Bogar, who served as a special assistant to Dipoto in Anaheim, became the second member of the Angels front office to follow Dipoto. Dipoto already plucked assistant general manager Scott Servais to replace Lloyd McClendon as the Mariners new manager. Now he has lured Bogar as well to Seattle to serve as Servais’ bench coach for the Mariners.

It probably comes as no surprise to new Los Angeles Angels general manager Billy Eppler that Dipoto would convince some of his former staff to follow him to Seattle. Eppler was quoted by Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com as saying, “We’ve lost two very talented baseball people that brought unique experiences and a resume to this organization. That’s no doubt going to be felt throughout a number of departments.” The Angels also lost assistant general manager Matt Klentak to the Philadelphia Phillies, when he was hired to be the Phillies’ new general manager last Saturday.

With the Angels losing three people in the front office in less than a week, Eppler did hire his first person to join his team. Former third baseman Eric Chavez was hired to fill one of the assistant general manager positions. Chavez retired as a player in 2014 and has been working since then as a special-assignment scout for the New York Yankees under GM Brian Cashman, as well as working closely with Eppler.

According to Gonzalez, Eppler said Chavez will fill a variety of roles for the Angels, including scouting, helping out with the Angels’ minor league system, as well as providing on-field instruction to Angels players during Spring Training.

Besides winning six Gold Gloves, Chavez was a pretty good hitter as well. For his 17-year career, Chavez had a .268 batting average with 260 home runs and 902 RBIs for the A’s (13 seasons), Yankees (two seasons) and Diamondbacks (two seasons). Chavez’s best years were with the A’s as a solid middle of the order bat. During a five-year stretch from 2001-2005, Chavez averaged 30 home runs and 101 RBIs for the A’s, helping them win the AL West twice and the AL Wild Card once during those five years.

Next on the list for Eppler will be finding a hitting and pitching coach for the Angels. The rumor has Angels assistant hitting coach Dave Hansen receiving strong consideration for the Angels batting coach in a position that was vacated when Don Baylor was not offered a new contract. The vacant pitching coach position for the Angels is less clear as there has only been names discussed as potential candidates thus far.

Next: Butcher hired by D-Backs

Whoever the Los Angeles Angels and Eppler choose to fill these vacancies will have the task of helping Eppler build a playoff contender, which may not be that far away. The other larger task is to build up an Angels farm system that has been near the bottom of the league in recent years after a number of trades.