Kurt Suzuki just got blunt reality check from new Angels GM

While most Los Angeles Angels fans expected this would be general manager Perry Minasian’s last season leading the front office, not many expected he’d get fired midseason, a few weeks ahead of the MLB Draft.

Interim GM John Mozeliak is now running the show and he put manager Kurt Suzuki on notice pretty much straight away which does not come as a huge surprise.

In Mozeliak’s introductory press conference he said: “There’s change that’s going to happen. That’s why we’re here.”

That isn’t a direct shot at Suzuki. It could apply to pretty much anyone in the organization from the front office to the coaching staff to the players. Change is coming and Suzuki is about as lame of a duck as there can be.

This was the case pretty much from the moment he agreed to a one-year deal to manage the club. It made sense not to give him a multi-year deal since Minasian’s deal was up after this year and the writing was already on the wall that he would be gone after so many years of poor results.

Suzuki had no managerial experience prior to taking the job and he was obviously not put in a great position to succeed, given the state of the franchise and the lack of talent on the big league roster.

Kurt Suzuki had no chance to succeed as Angels manager

He is far from the only reason that this season has gone the way it has. While it is very tough to quantify the actual impact a manager has on a team some have tried and, unsurprisingly, Suzuki ranks near the bottom. Whatever decisions he makes have to be viewed through the prism of the talent, or lack thereof, that he has at his disposal. It’s tough to make good decisions when there aren’t many good options.

The Angels will almost certainly be content to let him go after the season so the next GM or president of baseball operations can hand-select who they want as manager. Maybe they will keep him in the organization in some sort of advisory or front office role since he’s a former player and does not have the pedigree that would lend itself to landing another manager job.

Perhaps the only thing that could save him and get him another year as manager is if owner Arte Moreno really likes him for some reason and wants him to stay but whoever takes over the front office will probably only be successful by pushing back against Moreno’s delusions.

Suzuki was put in a bad situation and has tried his best to manage it but Mozeliak knows dismissing him will have to be done following the season. It’s a tough break, but that’s the business and Susuki knew the deal when he agreed to that one-year contract with the team.

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