Immediate Perry Minasian Angels’ firing fallout creates clear path for Kurt Suzuki replacement

Leave it to the Los Angeles Angels to ruin the party on Friday night. In peculiar timing, the Angels announced that former St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak had been hired as consultant and interim general manager while casually mentioning that Perry Minasian had been relieved of duties.

In a vacuum, Minasian being fired wasn't surprising. Perhaps there's a little surprise that Arte Moreno didn't simply ride it out and wait until the end of the regular season, but with the MLB draft and trade deadline looming, making the move now makes sense.

Mozeliak now has some important decisions ahead of him. The Angels will have a press conference today where last night's changes will be explained, and the former Cardinals executive will have a healthy amount of questions to answer.

The most pressing question will surround the fate of Kurt Suzuki. At the time of his hiring, Minasian made it pretty clear that Suzuki's fate was intertwined with his. With Minasian already shown the door, that doesn't bode well for Suzuki.

With the looming work stoppage after this season, it stands to reason that Mozeliak may just have a decent chance of sticking around having the interim label removed. If that happens, there's a pretty obvious managerial candidate the Angels will be connected to.

John Mozeliak may be the voice of influence for Albert Pujols to return to the Angels

Albert Pujols was strongly connected to the Angels' job last offseason before ultimately removing his name from the consideration. Since then, reporting has suggested that talks broke down between Pujols over money and LA not wanting to make his desired personnel changes. It's speculation, but it would be fair to suggest one of those requested changes was the removal of Minasian.

That alone creates a pretty clear path for Pujols to emerge as the next Angels' manager.

A connection that has now only gotten stronger with Mozeliak now runnings things in Los Angeles. Given shared history between Pujols and Mozeliak, it stands to reason the former is going to be brought up in conversations with Moreno in the months ahead.,

Money may still be a factor, and if that's the case, Pujols will likely have other options. He wasted no time expressing his interest in the Mets' vacancy. But given the connection with Mozeliak and the history he has with the Angels, perhaps that strong enough to lower the past contract demands he had.

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