Angels Notes: Mozeliak, Suzuki, Trout

The Angels just wrapped up their first 100-loss season and extended their league-worst playoff drought to 12 years, but fans are optimistic over a change in ownership. Arte Moreno, who purchased the Angels in 2003, recently agreed to sell a majority stake in the franchise to Stan Kroenke. While the sale is not expected to fully close until the first quarter of 2027, the Angels have important offseason business to conduct in the meantime. It starts with figuring out who will run the Halos’ baseball operations. The team hired longtime Cardinals executive John Mozeliak to take over as interim general manager after the late-June firing of Perry Minasian. Mozeliak was handed the keys through the end of the year, but whether he’s in for the long haul is up in the air. When discussing his status on Monday, Mozeliak said he had a meeting scheduled today with Kevin Demoff of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). It is unclear if that meeting has gotten underway yet, but it could give Mozeliak a better idea of whether he has a future with the franchise. Manager Kurt Suzuki is in a similar boat. If Mozeliak has his way, Suzuki will manage the team again in 2027. However, that isn’t Mozeliak’s call. “I would like to see him be that, but ultimately that’s not my decision,” said Mozeliak (via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com). Suzuki, who caught in the majors from 2007-2022 and played his last two seasons with the Angels, became their manager last year despite a lack of coaching experience. After spending two seasons as a special assistant to Minasian, he accepted a one-year offer to serve as the Halos’ skipper. The Angels trudged through a horrid campaign under Suzuki, but any manager would have been hard-pressed to get much from their talent-deprived roster. Their immediate outlook worsened in pre-trade deadline deals involving a handful of veterans – including right-hander José Soriano and outfielder Jo Adell – but those future-oriented moves were understandable on Mozeliak’s part. Regardless of whether Mozeliak and Suzuki remain with the franchise in 2027, outfielder Mike Trout is sure to return for the 17th year of his storied career. The future Hall of Famer missed significant time with injuries from 2020-24, but he just finished a second straight mostly healthy season. Trout has played in 272 games, including 142 this year, since 2025. All 109 of Trout’s outfield appearances came in center this season, but Mozeliak revealed that the 35-year-old approached him about spending more time in left and at DH next year (via Fletcher). Mozeliak is on board with that, which isn’t surprising after Trout was credited with minus-8 Defensive Runs Saved, minus-5 Outs Above Average and minus-4 Fielding Run Value this season. The 12-time All-Star and three-time AL MVP continued as a bright spot for the Angels, though, as he slashed .242/.382/.421 (129 wRC+) with 22 home runs and 4.1 bWAR/3.3 fWAR in 634 plate appearances. Trout will go into 2027 with four years left on the mega extension he signed in March 2019. Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images View Comments (1)