Angels decline Kurt Suzuki option after 62-100 season

Suzuki got 1 season. The Angels offered him a spot as a special assistant on the way out, which is a soft landing, but it doesn't change the result: he's not the manager anymore.

This was always going to be hard to survive. The Angels went 62-100, 10 games worse than in 2025, and it's the first time the franchise has ever lost 100. Suzuki signed a 1-year deal in October 2025 after 3 years as a special assistant under Perry Minasian, so he walked in with almost no runway. Minasian was gone by June, and Mozeliak took over as interim GM. Suzuki was managing for a front office that had already been replaced.

Foul Territory

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BREAKING: Kurt Suzuki will not return as Angels manager after one season. @KPILLAR4 reacts to the decision and wonders whether Suzuki’s one-year stint was always designed to be temporary.

That's the read from people who know the job. Erik Kratz went further and said Suzuki wasn't the problem, and that 1 season was never going to be enough to change the culture in Anaheim. It's hard to argue. The rotation actually got better, with its ERA dropping to 4.14 (12th in MLB) from 4.91, and the team still lost 100 anyway.

Foul Territory

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“Kurt Suzuki was a long-term sub.” @ErikKratz31 says Suzuki wasn’t the problem and that one season was never enough to change the Angels’ culture.

Then the other shoe dropped. Mozeliak said he won't be the full-time GM in 2027, that the search for one is still early, and that he'll finish out his contract and step aside once new leadership is in place. So the Angels need a new manager and a new GM (or president of baseball ops) at the same time, and Mozeliak says the GM gets hired first and picks the manager.

All of this lands during an ownership change. Stan Kroenke is buying the team from Arte Moreno, and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027. Kroenke spent years in St. Louis with the Rams, and Mozeliak ran baseball ops for the Cardinals. That St. Louis link is why Albert Pujols' name came up again right away.

Goold posted that before Mozeliak ruled himself out of the full-time job, so the "new GM" part of his tweet has already changed. The Pujols part still holds. He has history with the Angels and with St. Louis, and he was a candidate the last time this job opened. Whoever takes it will be the Angels' 6th manager since Mike Scioscia left after the 2018 season. It's the most important hire of Kroenke's first winter, and it can't happen until the GM search is done.