Angels may not have John Mozeliak around much longer after latest comments

The Los Angeles Angels' offseason to this point has been overshadowed by the lack of decisions in both the front office and the manager position. One of those spots finally saw resolution when the Angels announced on Wednesday that manager Kurt Suzuki's contract option was not being picked up. John Mozeliak remains as the interim GM, but that doesn't seem to be for long.

Jeff Fletcher, the Angels beat reporter for the Orange County Register, relayed some of Mozeliak's comments on Wednesday night, and the indication is that Mozeliak will remain with the Angels until his contract expires in December. After that, assuming there's new faces in charge, Mozeliak is expected to step aside.

The former Cardinals GM took over in an interim capacity at the end of June after Perry Minasian was fired. He led the team through a successful trade deadline, despite only having about five weeks with the organization. With the organization not announcing any decisions on the front office, it was starting to seem like Mozeliak might have stuck around; he had experience leading an organization through an ownership change, but now that seems to be a definite no.

John Mozeliak's job security was already in question, but now it is gone

Besides Mozeliak's comments about the role, another sign came from Suzuki being let go. Mozeliak had endorsed Suzuki a few weeks ago. While most didn't take much from him doing that, Suzuki being let go is almost certainly a sign that Mozeliak will be seeing his way out too. If they were keeping Mozeliak, they likely wouldn't be moving on from the manager he endorsed.

Mozeliak's contract ends in December. That is probably the amount of time the Angels will take to decide on their next GM. The search is reportedly happening in coordination with Kroenke Sports Entertainment, the next owner of the Angels. According to Mozeliak, the next manager of the club won't be decided until the GM is.

It will be interesting to see how the Angels handle the start of the offseason if this becomes true. It seems very likely that Mozeliak will remain in power for the first couple of major milestones of the offseason, but he obviously won't be the one carrying out the long-term direction of the team. He also will not have a manager to bounce ideas off of or give insight to parts of the team that only someone in the clubhouse every day can give.

It was exciting to see that a new ownership was coming in, but everyone knew the transition could be awkward. From what Mozeliak said today, they are not making the situation any easier for themselves.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow