'It's on me': GM Minasian talks struggles, Trade Deadline

This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger’s Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ANAHEIM -- Angels general manager Perry Minasian met with the media at Angel Stadium after the club returned from a nine-game road trip through Houston, Miami and Baltimore that saw them go 1-8.

Minasian talked about a variety of topics related to the way the Angels have been playing over the last several months, as they looked like a legitimate postseason contender in mid-May, only to suffer a stunning collapse over the last two months. Here’s a lightly edited Q&A from Minasian’s media session.

Q. What’s it been like watching this club maybe succeed in one area, only to see everything else around it not work?

Minasian: “It’s not fun. Obviously, not fun to watch. We’ve really struggled at the plate. Offensively, we’ve had a rough month and a half. The bottom of the lineup has really struggled. And the top of the lineup has been somewhat streaky. It just seems when we do hit, we don’t pitch. That’s part of the game and you go through stretches like that, but this stretch is longer than usual. … It’s something where we’ll continue to work and try to find what’s wrong and get to work trying to fix it.”

Q. When you see the struggles, do you feel like this is on the players, the coaches or you?

Minasian: “It’s on me. It’s 100 percent on me. I’m in charge of the roster. Coaches can only work with what I give them. I’m very cognizant of that. … Our depth is not good enough. It has not been good enough. I do think guys can improve and I do think some guys haven’t played up to their abilities. But that being said, this offseason we were really concentrating on the mound. I felt like that was the area we needed to improve the most. We’ve had significant improvements in our rotation and the bullpen has been hit and miss. There have been struggles there, too, but for the most part, they’ve been consistent. It’s the offense that has really struggled.”

Q. What has the trade market been looking like?

Minasian: “I think things will definitely heat up after the Draft. As far as a Trade Deadline buyer or seller, I don’t believe in terms like that. I think we’re going to look for opportunities to make the club better. Whether it’s short-term or long-term, if something makes sense we’ll try to accomplish that.”

Q. Would you consider rebuilding or trading one of your superstars like Mike Trout or Shohei Ohtani?

Minasian: “I’m not going to talk about specific people. Teams are going to call and ask about everybody. If you have really good players, you get asked about them. You don’t hang up the phone, but some guys are harder to trade than others, obviously. But with that being said, I’m not going to name specific players.”

Q. Do you see a scenario where you can build around Trout and Ohtani and win?

Minasian: “There’s definitely a formula to win around them. And it’s a deeper team. You can do that a lot of different ways. The Draft is a part of that. Free agency and trades are a part of that. I definitely see a road map to putting a competitive team on the field with those guys. They’re great players.”