LA Angels’ scouting director Matt Swanson out after disappointing run

Matt Swanson, the scouting director for the LA Angels, has lost his job after overseeing the last five drafts, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange Country Register.

There haven’t been many notable players that Swanson has hit on during his tenure in the role. He drafted Jo Adell in 2017, who appears to be a great pick and drove in 26 RBI in 35 games this season. Other than that, the players he’s drafted generally haven’t had major positive impacts on the team.

For instance, he looked like he hit on Griffin Canning, but Canning really struggled this season and was sent down. He drafted some other great prospects like Reid Detmers (2020) and Sam Bachman (2021), but overall this farm system is still really struggling.

The LA Angels’ farm system was ranked 24th in MLB in August, an indictment on Matt Swanson’s performance.

Matt Swanson hasn’t been drafting up to par with the LA Angels.

In fairness, he tried something different this year, and drafted all pitchers. However, the farm system still looks pretty bad.

That 24th ranking is only one spot ahead of where it was before the season.

Swanson clearly cares about improving the pitching staff, but it may have been a little bit too late.

Things aren’t looking good when it comes to our prospect situation, and changes desperately need to be made.

We’ve given many prospects the chance to come out and play for our big league team early, especially on the pitching side. We haven’t necessarily seen big results.

We have a three-time Manager of the Year, and the best two players in baseball. The one thing we’re not seeing, however, is a strong farm. This was a necessary move.