The Angels’ manager search just got a little more cramped.
Alex Cora, long seen as a natural fit for the Phillies because of his connection to Dave Dombrowski, has said he’ll be taking 2027 off from managing as well. That shuts the door on Philadelphia, but it also removes one of the bigger names from the Angels’ pool at a time when the options already look thin.
Los Angeles has plenty of moving parts around it now. Kurt Suzuki was widely expected to be a one-year stopgap when he signed his contract to manage, especially with Perry Minasian in the final year of his deal and the team projected to struggle.
Since then, though, the landscape has changed dramatically. Stan Kroenke is expected to become the new principal owner after Arte Moreno sold his majority stake, and John Mozeliak has stepped in as the Angels’ interim GM after Minasian was fired.
That kind of turnover would normally make for a wide-open search. Instead, it’s the opposite. The Angels are staring at a managerial market that doesn’t offer many obvious wins, and Suzuki may end up looking better simply because the alternatives aren’t exactly jumping off the page.
Albert Pujols is still the wild card here. He makes sense on paper because he knows Mozeliak from their time with the St.
Louis Cardinals and has stayed connected to the Angels even after his playing days with the club ended. But there’s a catch: reports say he wants a significant contract and a lot of control, which could be a tough sell for a rebuilding team if Mozeliak already has a clear plan in place.
If the Angels wanted to swing bigger, Bob Melvin is another name that would at least carry some credibility. He was let go by the Giants after the 2025 season and has managed every California MLB team except the Angels and Dodgers, so he’d be a logical veteran presence to consider.
Still, the most practical move might be the simplest one. Suzuki wasn’t spectacular in 2026, but he also wasn’t a wreck, and he did go along with Mozeliak’s staff changes. With Cora off the board and the candidate list not exactly overflowing, bringing Suzuki back for another year or two might not be the worst outcome.
The Angels never looked likely to land Cora. But his decision to sit out 2027 makes the bigger point impossible to miss: this is a managerial market short on attractive answers, and Los Angeles may have to live with that.
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The Angels successfully flipped more than half of their challenges, with Mike Trout, Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel among the players most willing to tap the button when they thought a pitch missed the mark. Manager Kurt Suzuki encouraged that approach, asking his players to challenge only when they truly believed they were right, and the result was a rare bright spot in a season otherwise defined by the standings. [Read more 🡒]