Angels begin GM interviews but the biggest questions remain unanswered

The Los Angeles Angels find themselves in a weird position right now. They are without a manager and their head of baseball operations, John Mozeliak, is going to depart when his contract is up in December.

That means the Angels will need to find his replacement and they are reportedly beginning the process of interviewing GM candidates per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

While that is a good start, there is still a lot of uncertainty around the process. Mozeliak has said he gave a list of recommended candidates to KSE, which is incoming owner Stan Kroenke's holding company, and the list includes individuals currently employed by other organizations.

So we don't know who the candidates are, but at least the Halos are getting the ball rolling. Mozeliak has said that a hire probably will not be made until the sale of the team has been made official although it's unclear when that will take place.

This whole process is just so odd and it is obviously complicated even further by the fact that a lockout is looming in less than a month. It would be nice if the Angels knew who was going to be running the show next year before baseball comes to a grinding halt, but there is a chance they will enter the lockout without an executive leading the front office and without a manager.

That is not wholly surprising for a franchise that has been something of a laughingstock for over a decade now. The hope is that under new ownership that will change things going forward, but Kroenke and his team are taking over at a very odd time to say the least.

Will Stan Kroenke listen to John Mozeliak's suggestions?

Another factor that will be interesting to see is whether Kroenke's group listens to the recommendations made by Mozeliak when it comes to GM candidates. He may have identified people he sees as a good fit but will they agree with his assessment?

This comparison is a bit nerdy so please forgive me, but it is sort of like when George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney and as part of that deal he included story outlines for a new sequel trilogy based, at least in part, on microscopic organisms called the Whills.

Apparently Disney didn't really love his ideas so they kind of just did their own thing while taking some minor elements of his story, so are the Angels going to do a similar thing with Mozeliak?

Chances are he isn't recommending anyone too crazy out of left field, but Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that they are casting a very wide net in their search so maybe they decide to go with someone who was not really even on Mozeliak's radar.

There's just a lot to unpack with all of this and the Angels clearly are a bit of a mess right now but hopefully this process goes fairly smoothly and they are able to hire a good candidate who can help turn the franchise around.

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