Broken System in Anaheim Not Conducive to Healthy Manager-GM Relationship
There's no telling yet who will be the next permanent general manager to work for Los Angeles Angeles manager Mike Scioscia. Whoever it is, I trust he (or she) will be highly skilled at fetching coffee, taking telephone messages and maybe making copies.
Making copies of overly analytical scouting reports, however, will likely not be in the job description.
Jerry Dipoto is out, according to Bleacher Report sources, after three-and-a-half tumultuous years of attempting to general manage a baseball organization that has no use for a general manager.
Good try, Jerry. We'll hold a spot for you in the therapist's office next to Tony Reagins while former GM Bill Stoneman (2000-2007) takes over as emergency interim GM.
Score another victory for Scioscia in his long-running power campaign inside the Los Angeles Angels of Disneyland Sponsored by "It's a Small World," And That Means You, You GM Wanna-Bes.
Dipoto gave it a spirited run. He really did. But when you have a manager on one side with acres of turf already staked out, and an owner on the other who impulsively shops for sluggers like Guy Fieri searches out diners and dives, there is such a tiny sliver of room to operate, it's nearly impossible even to fall on your own sword.
Still, Dipoto did so and did so beautifully Tuesday, with he and the manager again going all Hatfields and McCoys following last year's best-in-the-AL 98 wins.
And good for him. Because in Anaheim, the flow chart doesn't flow. The chain of command hasn't been unchained.
Owner Arte Moreno, now in his 13th year of fouling up the baseball operations side of his business, is more adept at creating chaos than championships. And as good a manager as Scioscia has been over the years, as long as he has a direct line to the owner and the owner backs the manager over his GM, chaos will reign and the Angels are doomed.
No relationship in baseball is as important as that of a GM and a manager, not even the relationship between Tommy Lasorda and his pasta in the old days. You cannot underestimate it. You cannot fake it.
"It has to be like a marriage," one longtime baseball man said Tuesday. "There has to be mutual respect. There has to be give and take."
Not since Stoneman retired as GM after the '07 season has that been the case in Anaheim.
Lessons should have been learned during Reagins' short, four-year run as GM (2007-2011), which started with consecutive playoff appearances and ended with two years of being boxed out of October.
During that time, Reagins was little more than a glorified executive secretary as Moreno and Scioscia made all of the key decisions. Including, during an emotional fit after losing out on free agent Carl Crawford, Moreno ordering Reagins to acquire expensive outfielder Vernon Wells from Toronto. Sources say Reagins' marching orders were to acquire Wells within 24 hours or be fired. Done.
Such is life under Moreno, a constant state of measuring height so you're safely on guard when the owner barks "Jump!"
One industry source reminded me Tuesday that for part of the time when Reagins was "running" things, the Angels didn't even bother using scouts to watch the American League because, well, Scioscia handled that. While managing the team.
As the Angels regressed, Moreno sacked Reagins and lured Dipoto, promising a sharp young executive viewed within the game as a rising star that he could run things his way.
But even with a modicum of room to work, enough that he fired hitting coach Mickey Hatcher in May 2012, Dipoto never had a chance to entirely implement his program because, like a student driver with an instructor in the car, he was never fully licensed.
No surprise there. Scioscia has had a vise grip on power within the organization since the owner handed him a 10-year deal before the 2009 season. Back to the manager-GM relationship, there is a reason why in most organizations, the GM's contract at least matches the manager's in length, and usually exceeds it.
So whenever there was a disagreement in Anaheim and Dipoto tried to flex his muscles, more often than not it was going to go the way of a tent in a tornado. The staying power just wasn't there.
Meantime, it was Moreno who went shopping for Albert Pujols ($240 million) and Josh Hamilton ($125 million), allocating significant resources at times in directions Dipoto and his staff wouldn't have gone. Just as Wells, whose back-loaded, $126 million deal, one of the worst in baseball history, wasn't a deterrent for Moreno.
In a changing game in which whip-smart front offices meld scouting and data in sophisticated ways, this is an utterly anachronistic way of doing business. But Moreno persists in involving himself in baseball decisions.
There are no indications that will change anytime soon, which is bad news for the Angels no matter who eventually permanently succeeds Dipoto. Scioscia, whose contract runs through 2018, can opt out of his deal after this season. But now that he's won another power struggle, and with $15 million owed to him over the next three seasons, there is a better chance of the Rally Monkey becoming GM than there is of Scioscia opting out.
As for Dipoto, he will take his advanced analytics reports and ideas on defensive shifts elsewhere. You know where he would be a great fit? Philadelphia, under Andy MacPhail.
There is little room for shifts in Anaheim. Worst part is, I don't mean on the field.
Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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