The Angels’ search for a new front office leader could wind up circling right back to St. Louis.
John Mozeliak, the interim general manager in Anaheim, spent three decades in the Cardinals organization and the last 18 years of that run as head of baseball operations. He stepped aside after the 2025 season, but the front office he built in St.
Louis is still full of assistants who know how he likes things run. That makes the Cardinals’ current staff a natural place to look for the Angels’ next GM.
Three names stand out.
Randy Flores is the most obvious. Mozeliak hired him away from broadcasting in 2015 and put him in charge of scouting, and the move has largely paid off.
Flores has overseen first-round selections like J.J. Wetherholt, Jordan Walker, and Nolan Gorman, all of whom have worked out well.
He has also done damage in the later rounds, landing Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbar in the 7th and 8th rounds of the 2018 draft and Tommy Edman in the 6th round in 2016.
That kind of draft success matters, especially when the goal is building a steady winner. Flores also has experience beyond just selecting players. He has helped with 40-man roster construction and player contracts, and he has headed the division that includes international scouting data.
A second Cardinals option is Jose Rodriguez, who has been tied to Mozeliak for even longer. Rodriguez came aboard in 2007, when Mozeliak became the Cardinals GM, and has deep experience in international scouting and general baseball operations. Over time, he took on primary responsibility for the draft and also ran a player acquisition division focused on scouting talent in other organizations.
His international track record is a strong part of the case for him. Rodriguez signed Sandy Alcantara out of the Dominican Republic and Randy Arozarena out of Cuba, and he has the background to fit the way Mozeliak likes to structure a front office.
Then there is Rob Cerfolio, the newest of the three to earn Mozeliak’s trust. The Cardinals brought him over from the Guardians in 2024 to work with Chaim Bloom after Mozeliak’s departure.
Cerfolio now oversees St. Louis’ minor league operations and the organization’s talent-development side, including the sports science and technology push that has become such a big part of how the Cardinals prepare players.
Cerfolio’s rise in Cleveland is part of what makes him appealing. He started there as an intern in player development and climbed all the way to Director of Player Development over his final three seasons.
During his time in the organization, Cleveland developed players such as Tanner Bibee and shortstop Brayan Rocchio, among others. That work helped fuel the Guardians’ reputation as a pitching factory.
The bigger picture is that the Cardinals currently have three assistant GMs with real success behind them, and they’re backed by a deep staff of scouts, analytics people, and coordinators. The Angels have added more front office staff in recent years, and both clubs now sit near the bottom of the league in front office size. But a small staff only works if the people in place are elite.
If the Angels want this to work, they may need more than just a GM. They may need Mozeliak as a chief advisor and the kind of top-shelf assistants, scouts, and analysts that make a front office function at a high level. And that, as the source material makes clear, means Arte Moreno would have to open the checkbook.
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