One Wrong Hire Could Keep the Angels Stuck in Baseball Purgatory

For almost a decade now, the Los Angeles Angels have been baseball’s most expensive paradox. They’ve got Mike Trout, probably the best player of his generation. They had Shohei Ohtani, a once-in-a-century talent. And somehow, they still haven’t won a playoff game since 2014. That’s not bad luck. That’s a broken organization.

So if owner Arte Moreno really is ready to move on from general manager Perry Minasian, he can’t just swap names on the front door. He needs someone who can tear down the whole approach and rebuild it from scratch. Because the Angels aren’t one or two signings away from contention. They need a complete overhaul of their player development pipeline, their analytics department, and honestly, their entire baseball philosophy.

The next GM has to walk in knowing their job isn’t to win a press conference. It’s to fix the farm system, stop chasing quick-fix veterans every winter, and build a roster that can actually develop homegrown talent. Here are five candidates who could actually pull that off.

What a new GM actually has to solve

The Angels have a major league roster that’s shallow, a farm system ranked near the bottom of baseball, and a track record of turning high draft picks into mediocre role players. The next GM needs strong scouting instincts and a modern analytics approach. But more than that, they need the guts to challenge the organization’s old habits. This franchise has been trying to skip steps for years. Somebody has to stop that.

Five candidates who make sense

Kim Ng

Ng already has a GM job on her résumé and a reputation for bringing calm, disciplined structure to a front office. With the Marlins, she navigated tight payroll restrictions and still got a team into the playoffs. That experience with small budgets and tough decisions translates directly to Anaheim. Plus she’s spent time with the Yankees, the Dodgers, and MLB’s central office. She knows how a well-run organization looks, and she’d bring that seriousness to a club that often seems reactive rather than strategic.

Thad Levine

Levine has been one of baseball’s sharpest evaluators for years. He helped build competitive rosters in Texas and Minnesota without relying solely on star power. That’s exactly the kind of thinking the Angels need. He blends old-school scouting with modern roster construction, and he has experience making smart fringe moves that add depth without breaking the bank. The Angels have consistently lost the battle for roster margins. Levine could fix that.

Billy Owens

Owens has been a respected assistant GM candidate for years. He spent significant time with the Oakland Athletics, a franchise that routinely outperformed its payroll through smart player development and creative evaluation. He also worked with other analytically progressive clubs. Owens doesn’t have the biggest name on this list, but he could bring fresh ideas to an organization that has too often fallen behind in long-term planning. Sometimes the less flashy hire is the smarter one.

Jason McLeod

McLeod was a key architect of the Chicago Cubs’ pipeline during their rebuild. He knows how to develop talent from the ground up because that’s what he helped do in Chicago. For a franchise that has struggled to produce homegrown contributors consistently, that experience is invaluable. If the Angels are serious about fixing the foundation, McLeod is the kind of executive who can actually lay the bricks.

Amiel Sawdaye

Sawdaye has quietly built a reputation as one of baseball’s more creative thinkers. With roots in scouting and experience in progressive front offices, he brings a blend of traditional evaluation and modern infrastructure. He’s helped organizations think differently about identifying and maximizing talent. The Angels need that kind of perspective at every level of the organization. He wouldn’t be the splashy hire, but he might be the smartest one.

The right hire matters more than the name

If the Angels want the safest proven choice, Kim Ng is probably the answer. She’s done the job before, handled the pressure, and brought coherence to a messy situation in Miami. If they want a longer-view developmental hire, Jason McLeod fits that profile perfectly.

But none of it matters unless the next GM has real authority and a real vision. Replacing Minasian is just cosmetic unless the new person can actually change how this franchise operates. Otherwise the Angels will keep being what they’ve been for too long: a team with famous names and no direction.