It has been a month now since the Los Angeles Angels announced that manager Phil Nevin would not return next season.
Nevin was relieved from his duties just a day after the regular season concluded as the clubhouse finished the season 73-89 and missed the postseason for the ninth straight year.
The Angels are now looking for their fourth manager over the past five years since the departure of Mike Scioscia who managed them for 18 years.
While Los Angeles has quietly begun the process of finding their next skipper, their neighbor 90 miles south, the San Diego Padres, are also looking for a new manager as Bob Melvin recently left the team to sign with their divisional rival, the San Francisco Giants.
After managing the Oakland A's from 2011-2021, he would be relieved from his duties and would eventually sign with the Padres. In his first year with San Diego, he helped eliminate their bitter rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in the NLDS and would advance to the NLCS for the first time since 1998.
With the vacant position in San Diego, pressure is starting to build for the Angels to sign a new manager as one of the top candidates for the job has recently interviewed with the Padres.
Earlier this week, it was reported by Jeff Sanders that the Padres have interviewed Angels coach Benji Gil to fill the vacant position.
"The Padres have so far interviewed bench coach Ryan Flaherty, pitching coach Ruben Niebla, and senior adviser Mike Shildt as well as one outside candidate, Angels coach and Castle Park High grad Benji Gil."
While Gil has never served as an official MLB manager, it is worth noting that he did manage team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic last winter and had many surprised as they managed to win four straight to earn a spot in the finals after a rough start of pool play to begin the tournament.
Following the WBC last March, it was reported by Sam Blum of The Athletic that Gil's performance as a manager has been overlooked over the years.
Blum went on to state the qualities that Gil possesses to make him a great manager is he knows what it's like to be one of the guys in the clubhouse as he is a former Texas Ranger and Anaheim Angels. He also has worked extensively across Minor League Baseball and understands how important the development of a player is.
"There’s an argument to be made that he’d already proven himself in Mexico years before. And, he said, if he ever does become a major-league manager, he’ll use the platform to tell people that there are great baseball minds in Latin American countries that often get overlooked in hiring processes."
Per Sam Blum of The Athletic
With little to be known about the Angels managerial search, the time to make a decision on who will be the skipper in the clubhouse needs to come this week as the team is entering an important free agency as two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani is entering free agency for the first time in his career. If the Angels want to re-sign him, they need to show him how committed they are to winning — and that starts with who will be manager of the future.
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