Angels Lose Another Managerial Candidate As Baldelli Bows Out

The Los Angeles Angels will be looking for a new manager soon, but they could be short on candidates by the time they get around to making a choice. The latest candidate to drop out is Rocco Baldelli, who has removed himself as a candidate to become the new manager of the Seattle Mariners, per a report from Mark Polishuk of MLBTradeRumors.com via Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. 

Baldelli had some success with the Minnesota Twins, as he led them to three AL Central titles and had a record of 527-505 during his seven seasons in MInneapolis, per Polishuk. Part of the problems he experienced were due to the Twins organization, as Minnesota isn’t always all-in on winning. 

The manager led the Twins to a two-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays in the Wild Card Series back in 2023, but the Twins collapsed the following September, with a fire sale at the trade deadline playing a huge role that led to the decision to let Baldelli go. 

Baldelli said he was hoping to manage again after that season, according to Polishuk, and he didn’t rule out a return as the manager of a new team in 2026. Instead he chose family time as he took a front office role with the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

That led to rumors that Baldelli and the Angels might be a match going into this season, but it’s not clear if the Halos actually interviewed him. 

It’s also unclear if the manager would be a fit with the new ownership group, as Stan Kroenke has yet to send out any signals about who the new manager might be, although interim Angels GM John Mozeliak did say a GM would be selected first as he announced that he wouldn’t be staying on after his current contract expires in December. 

It’s hard to know what the Angels are up to right now beyond moving on from Mozeliak and manager Kurt Suzuki, and it seems unlikely that they’ll offer any indicators while the World Series is still being played. 

The next flash point will be the GM meetings that start on Nov. 9, with the latest possible date for the end of the World Series being Oct. 31. That’s when we could know if the Angels will be sending a representative to those meetings, and with plenty of free agent activity expected, we might even have some idea of who that person could be.