Perry Minasian compiled a 392-501 record over six seasons, never finished above .500, never reached the postseason, and watched the franchise hold the longest active losing streak in baseball — ten consecutive seasons and counting. The Angels fired him on June 26 while sitting 34-49, last in the AL West. That’s all accurate. It’s also basically irrelevant to why this organization keeps failing.
The argument that Minasian deserved to be fired because the team was bad assumes that the GM had the tools to make the team good. He didn’t.
Why Did the Angels Fire Perry Minasian?
The official answer is performance: six losing seasons, a .440 winning percentage, a roster that has declined even as the league around it has gotten more sophisticated. Minasian arrived in late 2020 promising a rebuild-while-competing approach, which is the baseball equivalent of promising to lose weight while also eating more. The results were predictable.
But the honest answer requires a longer list. Arte Moreno personally blocked a reported trade of Shohei Ohtani to the Rays in 2023 — a deal that would have sent Junior Caminero and Carson Williams to Anaheim. Both became legitimate top prospects. Instead, Ohtani walked to the Dodgers for $700 million, the Angels got nothing, and Moreno still hasn’t internalized what that decision cost. Bleacher Report confirmed the team never finished better than third in the AL West under Minasian, but the organizational architecture that produced those finishes pre-dates him and survives him.
Molly Knight put it plainly in her Substack on the day of the firing: “Arte Moreno fires Perry Minasian because he cannot fire himself.” That’s not a take. That’s a description of what happened.
What John Mozeliak Actually Brings to Anaheim
Mozeliak spent 18 years running the Cardinals’ baseball operations, produced a 2011 World Series, and kept St. Louis in consistent playoff contention for over a decade. He is very good at his job. He is also on a contract that expires in December and has made clear his short-term priorities are navigating the draft, evaluating the trade deadline, and helping the organization identify a permanent GM.
That last item is the tell. Mozeliak isn’t here to fix the Angels. He’s here to hold a place while the Angels find someone to fix the Angels. When asked about massive organizational change, he said there was “no reason for massive change right away” — which sounds reassuring until you remember the team is 34-49 and barreling toward its 11th consecutive losing season.
The Cardinals under Mozeliak worked because Bill DeWitt Jr. committed to winning as an organizational value and funded it accordingly. That’s the structural mismatch no one in Anaheim wants to say out loud: Mozeliak’s methods require an owner who treats the front office as a genuine partner in decision-making. What he’s walking into is Arte Moreno’s organization, which is a different thing entirely.
FOX Sports’ John Fanta noted the organizational dysfunction from day one of the Mozeliak announcement:
The Angels fired GM Perry Minasian on Friday and named John Mozeliak, who spent 30 years with the Cardinals prior to stepping down in 2025, as their interim GM.
Mozeliak and team president Molly Jolly just met the media. The takeaways from the press conference for @NBCSports: pic.twitter.com/ZMvBVKJUGZ
— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) June 27, 2026
The players noticed the ownership priorities too. MLBPA Executive Director Bruce Meyer noted this past February that “the players took notice” after Moreno publicly said “winning is not in [fans’] top five” priorities. That quote is four months old and it still captures everything wrong with how this franchise is run.
Arte Moreno’s Revolving Door
Minasian was the fourth GM Moreno has cycled through since 2011: Tony Reagins fired that year, Jerry DiPoto pushed out in 2015 amid tensions with Mike Scioscia, Billy Eppler dismissed in 2020, now Minasian. Each firing came with similar language about new direction and fresh starts. None produced a playoff appearance. The Angels haven’t been to the postseason since 2014.
The Mike Trout no-trade clause isn’t helping — he holds a full NTC on his $426.5 million contract through 2030 and told reporters this spring he hasn’t “even thought about” requesting a trade. But the NTC isn’t the cage; it’s a symptom of the same organizational dysfunction. The Angels signed Trout to that extension in 2019 while simultaneously building a roster incapable of competing around him. They had Ohtani and Trout in the lineup together from 2018 to 2023 and never won more than 80 games in a season. That’s not a GM failure. That’s a franchise condition.
Mozeliak will handle the draft, evaluate the trade deadline, and hand the keys to whoever Molly Jolly hires as the next permanent GM. That person will inherit the same 34-49 trajectory, the same aging superstar on an unmovable contract, and the same owner who told the world six months ago that his fans don’t particularly care about winning. Until Moreno sells the team or commits to a genuine rebuild with the resources it requires, the next GM firing is already scheduled. The Angels just don’t know the date yet.
