Perry Minasian: Three Decisions That Sank the Angels

Last Friday, the Los Angeles Angels fired general manager Perry Minasian in the middle of his sixth season at the helm of the team. Minasian was in the final year of his contract, and with the Angels on track to finish their eleventh consecutive losing season, a change was necessary.

During the 46-year-old's tenure, the Angels posted a record of 392 wins to 500 losses, and never surpassed 77 wins in a single season.

This can be attributed, in part, to three decisions made by Minasian. First, he did not trade Shohei Ohtani at the 2023 trade deadline, only to lose him later for absolutely nothing.

At the time, the Angels were just three games out of the final “best second-place” spot, and they went all-in. Not only did they keep Ohtani on the roster, but they also traded away top prospects in a series of deals to acquire Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk, and Dominic Leone.

Los Angeles then lost sixteen of its first twenty games in early August and placed Giolito, Lopez, Grichuk, and several other veterans on waivers to reduce the team's payroll.

A total disaster. But that's not all—brace yourselves.

In the 2021 MLB Draft, Minasian opted for the extreme and infamous approach of using all twenty of his picks on pitchers.

The result was disastrous, as only three of the twenty pitchers made it to the majors with the Angels: first-round pick Sam Bachman, fifth-round pick Brett Kerry, and eleventh-round pick Chase Silseth. And there's nothing to write home about in the performances of these three players.

Finally, the Brandon Marsh trade must also rank among the low points of Minasian's tenure.

Marsh, who currently ranks fourth in the National League in batting average and is in the running for his first All-Star selection this season, was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies at the 2022 trade deadline in exchange for catcher Logan O'Hoppe.

Although O'Hoppe's first two years in Anaheim were promising, his development has stalled since then, as he has posted a .219 batting average over the past two seasons.

None of this looks good.

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