ANAHEIM -- The Angels officially introduced interim general manager John Mozeliak on Saturday, and he outlined why he joined the organization and his vision for building the franchise into a consistent winner.
Mozeliak -- joined by club president Molly Jolly, who hired him on Friday after firing GM Perry Minasian -- said he has short-term goals such as helping the club get ready for the upcoming Draft and Trade Deadline, but also long-term aspirations to bring back a sustainable winning culture. He’s essentially a consultant with his contract up in December, but Mozeliak wouldn’t rule out a longer stay with the organization -- though he didn’t seem interested in naming himself GM after spending 18 years in that position with the Cardinals before stepping down after last season.
“Over the course of the next couple months, I'm going to spend a lot of energy just trying to understand what's happening down below and work our way up,” Mozeliak said. “Obviously, winning still matters. We still care about that, and that's going to be something that we will never lose focus on. But there's a short view and a long view. And our short view is going to be coming through the Draft, addressing the Trade Deadline, finding our new general manager, and then, ultimately, hopefully, we lead to that foundation and structure that provides perpetual winning for the Angels.”
Mozeliak said the process started several weeks ago after connecting with Jolly through a mutual friend in agent Steve Hilliard. He said owner Arte Moreno was not involved in the process, but that he’ll meet with him soon. The plan is to keep manager Kurt Suzuki, the front office, training staff and coaching staff on through the rest of the season, but they’ll be evaluated by Mozeliak.
Mozeliak brings a wealth of experience, as he first joined the Cardinals prior to the 1995 season before becoming GM ahead of the ’08 campaign. He helped lead St. Louis to 15 straight winning seasons from ’08-22 and won the World Series in 2011.
“Mr. Moreno is the owner and my job is to have a healthy relationship with him,” Mozeliak said. “I think the short-term focus for me is, what's that communication line look like? And making sure he understands what our direction is. And I'm looking forward to that.”
Mozeliak said he plans to be more hands-off with the Draft looming on July 11-12, as he’ll trust the staff led by scouting director Tim McIlvaine with the club set to have the No. 12 overall pick. But he said one of his first goals will be to help formulate a plan for the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline.
The Angels could be aggressive sellers and look to trade starting pitchers José Soriano or Reid Detmers, or possibly even shortstop Zach Neto. But it’s unclear if Moreno will give Mozeliak clearance to make those kinds of moves, as all of those players are under team control beyond this year.
“It’s daunting in that I’m going to have to trust these people in the room [the current executives],” Mozeliak said. “I'm going to go internal with this and trust what these people see every day, because they know the product, and they know what we have down below and what that looks like. But I'll try to study and do as much as I can between now and then.”
Jolly said she brought in Mozeliak because of his extensive experience and how consistently the Cardinals won during his tenure. She’s in her first season as president after longtime president John Carpino retired, and she said she believed now was the right time to make the move.
“Change always starts with that first decision,” Jolly said. “And after spending some time reflecting on where we were and what I wanted to accomplish, I felt like starting that process right away was in the best interest of the organization right now, as well as in the future.”
Mozeliak and Jolly said the goal is to have the new GM in place as soon as possible, as Mozeliak already has a short list of candidates. But it’s not expected to happen until after the Trade Deadline and could come during the offseason.
Mozeliak wouldn’t fully rule out taking that position himself or staying with the organization beyond ’26, but the 57-year-old indicated he’s not interested in another long stint as a GM.
“I really don't want to have to be in the seat of a general manager for like five years,” Mozeliak said. “But there could be a position or a role that makes sense for me to stay around. In the meantime, I think I can be very helpful on really bridging the gap for someone like Molly, who is coming from the business side, to oversee baseball operations.”