It has been nearly five years since the Los Angeles Angels hired Perry Minasian as their general manager. In his five seasons at the helm of the front office, Minasian has failed to deliver on his promises to Angels fans.
During his introduction press conference in November 2020, Minasian said Los Angeles would be a competitive team, not a rebuilding one.
“That’s one of the reasons this just is so intriguing,” he said. “This is not a hundred-loss team. This is not a five, seven, ten-year rebuild. This is going to be a competitive club.”
While he was technically right about not being a one-hundred-loss team, the Angels came as close to it as possible, losing 99 games in 2024. Last season wasn’t a one-off, either.
In Manasian’s five years as the general manager, the Angels failed to record a winning record a single time, and they never even got close. Their best season in that time, 2021, saw the Halos finish eight games below .500.
When you have five of five seasons with 85+ losses, you certainly have not fielded a competitive team. Instead, it looks like it will take a ten-year rebuild to turn things around in Los Angeles, and even that may be wishful thinking.
Manasian clearly hasn’t come to terms with the Angels not being a competitive team, as he made questionable moves at the deadline. Instead of selling veteran players like Kenley Jansen or Taylor Ward and maximizing their value, Minasian remained firm in the fact that the Angels were not a team that should be selling, but instead looking to be competitive.
“We’re obviously really competitive. I wanted to keep this group together,” he told The Athletic’s Sam Blum.
The team sat in 11th place in the American League as the deadline passed. Now, the Angels sit 13th.
Minasian’s reluctance to call a spade a spade and start fresh has doomed the future of the franchise. Superstar and face of the franchise, Mike Trout, showed signs that his best days are behind him. The franchise has a bleak future, with one of the worst, if not the worst, farm systems in the MLB.
With the promises of competitive baseball five years ago, Angels fans have yet to see any of those promises fulfilled by Minasian and the front office five years later.