LAS VEGAS - John Mozeliak isn’t pretending the Angels are operating under normal circumstances.
At MLB’s annual general managers’ meetings this week, the interim baseball boss kept coming back to the same idea: for now, the job is mostly about keeping things moving while the bigger decisions wait. That’s because the Angels’ sale to Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, reported at $4 billion, still needs approval from major-league owners before it becomes official. That vote isn’t expected before December, even though the league’s owners are scheduled to meet next week in New York.
So while the Angels try to map out an offseason after the first 100-loss season in franchise history, the organization is stuck in limbo. The club hasn’t posted a winning record since 2015, and with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire Dec. 1, the timing makes the whole transition even messier.
“Thinking about right now, it’s just business as usual,” Mozeliak said.
He then described his role with a blunt little shrug: “I’m like an innkeeper,” Mozeliak said with a shrug. “My role right now is to keep the lights on, keep the trains running on time. That’s what I do.”
But even that comes with a catch. Mozeliak said the Angels are still trying to gather information for the next regime, knowing he won’t be the long-term answer once the sale is complete.
“What makes this unusual is where we are with player acquisitions,” Mozeliak said. “What’s normal this time of year would be to get a real understanding of what potential trades might look like, or assessing where some players might be on the free-agent market. Where it becomes a little different is there’s a sale pending, so that transition factor, and then knowing I am not the long-term solution for the new owner, so we’ll have to transition leadership at some point.
“So, what am I doing? What is my team doing?
We’re taking copious amounts of notes,” Mozeliak said. “We’re trying to - once that leadership change happens - be able to hand over all the information we’ve gathered so that this wasn’t a complete waste of time.
Then, how they use that is completely up to them.”
For now, the biggest immediate task is finding a general manager. Mozeliak was brought in on an interim basis in June after Perry Minaisan was fired, and his contract runs through the end of the year. He won’t become the full-time GM, but he will help with the search.
A league source said roughly two dozen names are in the mix, with a wide range of experience levels. Mozeliak won’t get involved until KSE narrows the field to finalists.
The ideal scenario would be to have a new GM in place before the CBA expires, but a more realistic path is that KSE identifies its top choice and waits to make the job official until the sale is approved. Until then, Mozeliak is working with Kevin Demoff, president of team and media operations for KSE.
The Angels also still need a manager after deciding not to bring back first-year skipper Kurt Suzuki. That search will be handled by the new GM, along with a likely overhaul of much of the major-league coaching staff. Mozeliak expects that process to take at least a couple of weeks after the GM hire.
The bigger problem is that the Angels can’t really do much roster-building until the ownership situation clears up. Trades, free-agent signings and even a look at this year’s Japanese posting class all figure to be on hold.
With the CBA likely to expire before the sale is approved, the posting window for players from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball could be cut short once a lockout begins. Industry expectation is that plenty of clubs will move aggressively before Dec. 1, which only makes the Angels’ delay look more costly.
Mozeliak said the organization’s current mindset is simple: build from within.
“From the Angels’ standpoint, the mindset right now is to build from within,” Mozeliak said. “That simply means draft well, develop well and then, hopefully, when that core group of minor-league players are ready to hit the big leagues, you can build around that or support that.
“In the end, new leadership has to determine what they want that to look like or how quickly they feel they can move that.”
Even in a holding pattern, Mozeliak has kept working on the quieter parts of the job. He’s continued filling out the scouting and player development staff, and he oversaw the amateur draft this year. He also helped restock a thin farm system by trading seven players from the major-league roster before the deadline and bringing back nine players, most of them prospects.
That background fits his résumé. Mozeliak spent nearly two decades as president of baseball operations for the St. Louis Cardinals, where drafting and development were major strengths in the early 2010s.
He believes the Angels are in better shape on the prospect side than they were before, but he also made it clear there’s still plenty of work ahead.
“When you look at the competitive clubs, the focus has to be where your farm system is,” Mozeliak said. “From a prospect-value standpoint, the Angels are in a better spot. But there’s more to do there.”
Around the industry, the Angels’ GM opening is expected to draw strong interest. The franchise’s market size and KSE’s track record across other sports make the job attractive, even with the uncertainty surrounding the next CBA, a possible salary cap and floor, and whatever labor issues might affect the 2027 season.
Mozeliak summed up the assignment the way he sees it: get the next person ready to move fast when the time finally comes.
“I understand what we need to do,” Mozeliak said. “Prepare the next leader to be able to hit the ground running.”
When that actually begins is still up in the air.
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