A front office job with the Angels may not look like a plum assignment at first glance, but Thad Levine sees it differently.
Levine, now a special advisor with the Milwaukee Brewers after eight seasons as the Minnesota Twins’ general manager from 2017 to 2024, said on his “Rosters to Rings” podcast that the next person in charge of the Angels’ baseball operations could walk into a situation loaded with upside.
"There's a world of opportunity here," Levine said. "It's a tremendous market.
They have been willing to spend to try to win. ... They may be a little bit behind in some of the resources they've been deploying.
All I see that as an opportunity to vault forward because if they get up to speed, they don't have to spend to be number one in some of those resources.
"But if you're in the Top 10, it will be a demonstrative step forward," Levine continued. "Lord knows what gains you can make in a short period of time there based upon the resources that you would then have, and knowing full well that the payroll will be there to support a championship organization, and the fan base is dying to come out and support this team as it surges towards prominence once again."
Levine’s perspective makes sense for someone who has spent much of his career in environments where stretching every dollar matters. Before Minnesota, he worked 11 seasons as an assistant general manager with the Texas Rangers. Before that, he spent six years in the Colorado Rockies’ baseball operations department from 1999 to 2004.
The Angels’ market, Levine suggested, resembles the kind of place where a strong baseball operation can be rewarded. He pointed to the Cardinals as another example of a club in a relatively small media market that still drew strong attendance and, at least before the RSN bubble burst, solid television numbers when the team was winning.
For now, John Mozeliak will oversee the Angels’ baseball operations department until at least Dec. 1. That is not enough time to transform the club into a perennial contender, but it could be enough to identify where the player development system is breaking down.
It might also be enough to put the franchise on a better path, one where the eventual permanent GM - whether that turns out to be Mozeliak, Levine, or someone else - won’t have to lean so heavily on free agency and trades to find major league talent.
Levine’s bottom line was simple: for the right executive, this is a job worth wanting.
In Other News...
Kurt Suzuki Is Reaching A Breaking Point With The Angels
The Angels season has drifted into the kind of territory where every loss feels heavier than the one before it, and first-year manager Kurt Suzuki has not been able to change that trajectory. With one of the worst records in the American League and the club already looking up at the teams around it, the focus in Anaheim has shifted away from any faint playoff chase and toward what comes next for a roster that has not found enough traction under a new voice.
Suzukis job security is part of that larger picture, especially with the Angels widely expected to operate as sellers at the trade deadline. If the front office starts moving pieces, the next few weeks could become less about salvaging the present and more about sorting through who stays, who goes and how much of this roster gets reshaped before the season is over. [Read more 🡒]
Angels Draft Just Brought Back Some Very Familiar Names
After using its first-round pick on Jared Grindlinger, the Angels kept leaning into familiar territory by adding Jaxon Willits and Jack Salmon later in the draft. The names alone will catch the eye around Anaheim, but both players also arrive with college rsums that helped make them more than just sentimental selections, giving the organization a chance to add some recognizable bloodlines without treating the picks like ceremonial gestures.
Scouting director Tim McIlvaine pointed to the kind of makeup and skill set the club likes in both prospects, with Willits drawing praise for his winning approach and Salmon standing out for his physical tools, raw power and versatility. For an Angels draft class that already had a headline attached to Grindlinger, the family connections only deepen the intrigue, even if the more important question now is how those traits translate once the real development work begins. [Read more 🡒]
Tim McIlvaine May Have Just Changed How Angels Fans See This Draft
Tim McIlvaines first Angels draft in charge felt different from the start, and not just because the front office kept leaning into contact hitters and athletes instead of the usual chase for loud tools. The scouting director made it clear the club wanted players who could put the ball in play, move around the field and fit a development plan that looks a little less like the old Angels and a little more like a team trying to build a sturdier pipeline.
That showed up in the names they brought in, from Grindlinger to Jarren Advincula and Gavin Grahovac, each offering a different version of the same theme. Advincula brings the bat-to-ball profile the Angels targeted, Grahovac adds Southern California familiarity and offensive upside, and the overall class suggests McIlvaine is trying to reset how the organization evaluates talent from the ground up. The bigger question now is whether this draft was a one-year adjustment or the start of a real shift in how the Angels want to develop their next core. [Read more 🡒]