ANAHEIM — Angels general manager Perry Minasian met with the club’s beat writers on Saturday to discuss his rationale for wanting a new manager in 2026 and to give his thoughts on the state of the organization after a 72-90 season.
Minasian pointed to performance as the reason why they are moving on from Ron Washington, and why interim manager Ray Montgomery was offered a different role in the organization.
Minasian also said the Angels aren’t close to a decision on their next manager, despite reports that Albert Pujols is the frontrunner. Torii Hunter, who is a special assistant to Minasian like Pujols, is also expected to be a candidate, and they are expected to have external candidates as well. But he’d like to announce the hire as soon as possible, especially to get the coaching staff in order before the start of free agency.
Here are three other notable takeaways from Minasian’s session, where he also confirmed that he’ll be back as GM next season in the final year of his extension he signed in August 2024:
Detmers to return to the rotation, which will be top priority to improve this winter
Lefty Reid Detmers, who is coming off an impressive first season in relief, will return to the rotation next year because of the club’s lack of starting depth, with only Yusei Kikuchi and José Soriano considered locks for the rotation. Detmers, 26, posted a 2.19 ERA over his final 49 outings, with 66 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings. He believes the changes he made in the bullpen can translate to starting.
Ideally, the Angels will add at least two starting pitchers via free agency or trade. They have a lot of pitching prospects on the cusp of being ready such as Caden Dana, Sam Aldegheri (No. 13), George Klassen (No. 3), Ryan Johnson (No. 2), Chris Cortez (No. 10), Walbert Urena (No. 24) and possibly even top prospect Tyler Bremner, but they need dependable starters next year.
“We’ve got two open spots and we’re going to look at all different avenues to make the rotation situation significantly better,” Minasian said. “In my opinion, this is the best collection of young arms we’ve had since I’ve been here. But pitching-wise, you always need depth.”
Third base, center field will be areas of emphasis
With Yoán Moncada and Luis Rengifo headed to free agency and Anthony Rendon’s injury history, the Angels will be in the market for a third baseman this winter. Christian Moore is expected to take over at second base, but Minasian said he’ll have to earn a spot in spring.
“Third base is definitely a spot we’ll look at,” Minasian said. “That’ll be a spot that we look to upgrade through free agency, through trade. We even talked about position changes for certain guys.”
As for center field, Bryce Teodosio excelled there defensively late in the season, but his bat remains a question mark. Jo Adell was more productive and a better defender in right than in center, but he still could be considered for that role. They’re also hoping Mike Trout will play more games in right and Jorge Soler can also play some outfield.
But it’s a crowded situation that also includes left fielder Taylor Ward and upcoming center-field prospect Nelson Rada (No. 7). So a trade of Soler, Ward or even Adell can’t be ruled out, even after Adell and Ward had breakout seasons offensively.
Minasian says it’s too early to know if they’ll contend in 2026
The Angels did improve on their win total by nine games in 2025, but they still had some rough underlying numbers, including ranking 25th in runs scored (673), 28th in on-base percentage (.298) and 28th in ERA (.489). They also struck out the second-most times in MLB history (1,627). Minasian acknowledged they have plenty to improve on and believes ownership will allow him to make moves to improve the club going forward, but he wouldn’t say how close he feels this club is to contending after 10 straight losing seasons.
“The goal is to obviously improve, but I’m not one for predictions,” Minasian said. “The goal this offseason is to make the team as good as we can make it. … There’s areas where we need to get better, we’re well aware of that. That comes down, first and foremost, to pitching. On the offensive side, there’s issues there with strikeouts. We need to have better quality of at-bats. We need to play better defense. Only three, four teams made that type of nine-game improvement, but is that where we want to be? No, absolutely not.”
