Aside from the decision on where Shohei Ohtani will sign this offseason, the second biggest decision for the Los Angeles Angels is who will manage the team in 2024.
Just one day after the MLB regular season came to an end, the Angels wasted no time and announced that Phil Nevin would not manage the team heading into next year, making the position vacant for the fourth time in the last five years.
The decision on who could be managing this team next year is expected to be announced by the end of this week as the MLB GM meetings are currently underway and Angels GM Perry Minasian is scheduled to meet with the media on Tuesday.
On Monday, it was reported by Jon Heyman of the New York Post that the Angels top candidates for the vacant position include Buck Showalter, Ron Washington, Gary DiSacina, Benji Gil, Ray Montgomery and maybe two more unknown names.
While there are two unknown names in the running, one could speculate that the Angels could target former Chicago Cubs manager, David Ross as he was relieved from the Chicago Cubs to make room for former Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell.
While managing the Cubs, Ross led the team to the playoffs just once in 2020 where the season was shortened to 60 games. This past year, Chicago just missed the playoffs behind the Arizona Diamondbacks as they were just one game back from the final wild-card spot.
The one reason why I think the Halos could avoid hiring Ross is due to the fact that he has only made the postseason once in his career and has a record of 264-284.
While there isn't a lot to be known about who will be the skipper next year, one thing will remain true and that is getting Mike Trout to the playoffs.
While it is unknown if Ohtani returns to the Angels next year, Trout's name will surely remain on the roster and I would expect the Minasian to be very aggressive this offseason as he is heading into the final year of his contract as GM thus giving him a prove-it year and getting this organization to the postseason.
In his 12-year career, Trout has often been regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of all time but has only reached the postseason once in 2014 when the Kansas City Royals swept the Angels. Trout went 1-12 in that series.
Other names that have often been thrown around as part of the rumor mill for the job are former Angels players, Torri Hunter, Tim Salmon, and Darin Erstad.
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