Former MLB Executive Is Latest To Question Angels' Trade Deadline Approach

Samson, 57, was the Marlins' president from 2002-17, overseeing the team's last championship season in 2003. He was named executive vice president of the Montreal Expos in December 1999, a job he held until his then-stepfather, Jeffrey Loria, bought the Marlins in 2002.

Former New York Mets general manager Zack Scott was even more blunt in his criticism of the Angels' deadline approach.

"Make it stop," Scott wrote on Twitter/X on Wednesday. "There have been so many blown opportunities to build a farm system over the last several years, while still being bad at the big league level. What are we doing?!"

The two men have never spent a day inside the Angels' clubhouse, but Cameron Maybin has. He joined the chorus of voices hoping the Halos would finally kick off a rebuild this year.

"What are the Angels waiting for?" the retired outfielder wrote on his Twitter/X account. "...start selling already!"

Instead, the Angels will cast their lot with mostly the same group of players that helped the team go 53-56 leading up to Friday's series opener against the Chicago White Sox — a 6-3 loss.

Minasian is effectively in the position of executing the vision laid out by Arte Moreno, a vision that hasn't included rebuilding in his 22-year tenure as the Angels' owner.

Minasian's best defense of the team's deadline posture this year: even without a chance to play in October, playing consequential games in the interim can have value for his team's young players.

"We've added a couple relievers that we feel like are going to help the team," the GM told reporters, including Sam Blum of The Athletic. "We're worried about the White Sox (Friday). I feel like we played pretty good baseball over the last week, and we'll see how the rest of the two months go."