This just in, Tony Reagins has “resigned” as GM of the Angels, which is a fancy way of saying he was fired.  Here’s the story via Hardball Talk:

If the Angels are indeed going to be “creative and aggressive” this offseason they’ll do so with a new general manager, as Tony Reagins announced his resignation.

Angels owner Arte Moreno issued a statement saying that “in moving forward, we felt a change was needed.”

Clearly huge news.  This is an announcement that Angel fans had been praying for since the disastrous 2011 off-season.  I have to say, I am slightly shocked since the Angels aren’t always a reactive management team, so I did think Reagins had a shot at being give this off-season to try and save his job, but clearly Arte Moreno has seen enough.  This change at the top will have a major fallout on the entire off-season plan for the Angels, so seeing not just who, but the kind of GM they select to take over at general manager will be crucial.  Will they move to embrace statistics more?  Will they hire a big name?  Will they follow the trend of hiring a young up-and-comer?  Will they send an apology fruit basket to Eddie Bane?

I’ll have more on this later today or tomorrow, but for now, just know that we are finally free of Tony Reagins era of hit-or-miss (more miss than hit) maneuvers.