The Angels operate like a small-market Major League Baseball team. That was not the case when Angels owner Arte Moreno hired Perry Minasian as his team’s general manager nearly four years ago. That team had four players making at least $28 million.
They weren’t the sport’s biggest spenders, but for better or worse, they were a team defined by a desire to acquire superstar talent. That’s the checkbook Minasian thought he’d inherit. But it’s not the one he got.
Fast forward a few years. The Angels went to desperate measures to get below the luxury tax last season, putting nearly a third of their team on waivers. Their attempts to resign Shohei Ohtani were minimal, at best.
And they cut payroll by $40 million this season. On Thursday, the Angels announced that Minasian, who had been in the final year of his initial four-year contract, received a two-year extension. A show of confidence for the top baseball operations executive who had previously been left to twist in the wind with his future uncertain.
Minasian earned this extension because he’s instilled a framework for hope. He assembled a budding young core of players like Logan O’Hoppe , Zach Neto , Ben Joyce , Nolan Schanuel and José Soriano . All 30 teams would take any of those players this second.
Minasian has done an excellent job in that area. But he has yet to show he can succeed within the margins he’s been given. He’s yet to prove that he can be a winning GM for what is ostensibly a small-marke.