Giants rumored to have more interest in Angels third base coach to manage than the Angels do

Los Angeles Angels fans are as frustrated as ever with the state of their team. The 2023 season was supposed to be one where the Angels at the very least competed for a playoff berth, but they played no meaningful games and could watch Shohei Ohtani depart very soon.

There're many reasons the Angels failed in 2023, but one of those reasons was undoubtedly coaching. The manager has already been fired, and what most Angels fans hope will happen is the new manager brings in a fresh new staff. Among those fans want gone is third base coach Bill Haselman.

Haselman joined the Angels prior to the 2023 season as the team's catching instructor. That season he even acted as the team's interim manager after both Phil Nevin and Ray Montgomery were suspended. This past season, Montgomery was the team's third base coach and was responsible for some very questionable calls including one that wound up injuring Zach Neto in a home plate collision.

The Angels find themselves looking for a manager, but Haselman has yet to come up as a potential candidate. The Angels lack of interest (at least for now) in Haselman running things in Anaheim made it even more interesting when it was reported by John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (subscription required) that the Giants have discussed him as a potential replacement for the recently dismissed Gabe Kapler as their manager.

Bill Haselman being an option for Giants manager and not the Angels raises some questions

The Giants having some interest in Haselman does make some sense when diving deeper. He has a ton of experience in baseball in a variety of different roles, from a big league coach to minor league manager for both the Angels and Dodgers organizations.

Haselman managed in the Dodgers minor league system from 2014-2018, and that coincided with Farhan Zaidi's tenure as Dodgers general manager. Zaidi is now the Giants president of baseball operations. Choosing to hire someone he's familiar with does make some sense.

The Angels having no interest in hiring Haselman, a guy with no big league experience as a manager, isn't a surprise. The Angels having no interest while the Giants at least have some interest is what's interesting here. What do they see in him that the Angels don't? Did they have him in the wrong role?

For now, the level of San Francisco's interest is purely speculative. All we know is that he "has been talked about" to be a candidate for the position. Whether he gets an interview or gets hired remains to be seen. Whether the Angels have interest in him at some point also remains to be seen.