Mozeliak announces promotions of Swanson, Lord, scouting department restructure

ANAHEIM -- Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak still hasn’t decided his future with the club but announced before Monday’s series opener against the Yankees that Matt Swanson and Michael Lord were promoted as assistant general managers.

Additionally, the Angels dismissed three area scouts and three crosscheckers while not renewing the contract of Ray Montgomery, who has been in the front office this year after serving as interim manager last year when Ron Washington went on medical leave. Mozeliak said it’s part of the restructuring of the scouting department under Swanson, who will oversee international, professional and amateur scouting in his new role.

“Over the last month or so, we've tried to use some of that time to understand where we could ramp up and make some additional changes to different departments,” Mozeliak said. “And so one of the departments we addressed today was our scouting department. Part of the reason for all of this is to really get an alignment of how we think about our player acquisitions. I really wanted a more vertical approach on how we think about player acquisitions. Obviously we're going to have some openings for some scouts, but we'll begin that process immediately and hopefully fill it.”

Swanson and Lord join current assistant GMs David Haynes and Joey Prebynski, giving the Angels four under Mozeliak. Swanson, who previously served as the club’s scouting director from 2016-21 before eventually being offered an opportunity to remain in the organization in a different role, also worked as a scout and crosschecker with the Cardinals from 2008-16. So he goes back nearly 20 years with Mozeliak.

“He has an understanding of how to run the Draft, and obviously, I have a connection with him going back to the Cardinals days,” Mozeliak said. “So he understood how we thought about it and could execute that. And I think it'll be a good resource for [scouting director] Tim McIlvaine as well going forward, and so I'm really excited about this team. We’ve got to add a few new faces, but I think right now, we're going to have the right people in the right places.”

Haynes will focus on the Major League roster while Prebynski will oversee player development. Haynes and Prebynski were previously promoted in 2024 by former GM Perry Minasian. Minasian was dismissed in late June, and Mozeliak has been tasked with restructuring the organization, while he also played pivotal roles with both the Draft and trading away seven players as sellers ahead of the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline.

Lord joined the organization in December 2020, around when Minasian was hired, and previously worked with Minaisian in Atlanta from 2018-20. Mozeliak said it’ll be up to Swanson, Lord, Haynes and Prebynski to analyze their current departments over the next month and make recommendations, which could lead to a bigger front office.

“The responsibility for those department heads is to get together a plan of what they think they need to see,” Mozeliak said. “I haven't done a deep dive on head count relative to industry, but I do understand, just based on a quick look, that they are probably smaller in size for their shop, but they're a very effective shop. So if we feel we need to do that, we'll consider it.”

Mozeliak, who spent 18 years leading Cardinals’ baseball operations before transitioning out of that role last year, was also brought in by club president Molly Jolly to find a new general manager, but he hasn’t formally started the interview process for that position just yet. But he said he plans to talk with owner Arte Moreno and Jolly about the process soon. Longtime Cardinals assistant GM Randy Flores, who grew up locally and starred at USC before pitching in the Majors for eight years, has been floated as a top candidate for that role, but the Angels will cast a wide net once they get that process started.

“We haven't pushed forward with that,” Mozeliak said. “Right now, the focus has been all internal, and at some point, I'll get some guidance from Arte and Molly on that next step. But right now, I've been just focused really on just the baseball ops side for the Angels.”

He also hasn’t determined whether he’ll stay with the organization once his contract is up in December. He could remain as a director of baseball operations or a consultant, but that hasn’t been decided just yet.

“I haven't thought much about my future,” Mozeliak said. “Right now, it's just trying to improve baseball ops.”