The Los Angeles Angels recently made the news after firing general manager Perry Minasian and replacing him with former St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. Mozeliak had retired after the 2025 season but was brought on board in an interim capacity.
Throughout his tenure in St. Louis, Mozeliak always tried to stay away from engaging in rebuilds. Ultimately, that only made it even more clear that the Cardinals had to do it under Chaim Bloom.
Unfortunately for Angels fans, Mozeliak is making the same mistake. When asked about whether or not the Angels needed to rebuild by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Mozeliak had this to say.
“No. I don’t think in this market you need to do that,” Mozeliak said. “I think what you need to do is understand what those arbitrages look like. You need to understand what the future free-agent market looks like.
“This team has resources. Now it’s just making sure we deploy them correctly.”
John Mozeliak’s Mistakes in St. Louis
By the time the Cardinals experienced their disastrous 71-91 finish in 2023, it was apparent that they needed to rebuild. In fact, that rebuild could have begun at the trade deadline that year if Mozeliak had listened to offers for his franchise cornerstones in Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado.
By that point, the Cardinals had already wasted their chances of winning a World Series title with both stars present. Mozeliak also failed twice to trade All-Star closer Ryan Helsley when his value was at its highest. In fact, in the midst of all that, he made perhaps one of the worst trades in recent Cardinals memory, acquiring Erick Fedde from the Chicago White Sox and sending Tommy Edman to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
By the time he traded Helsley, the closer’s value had gone down. Of course, the Cardinals are rebuilding now, and it has gone quite well under Bloom’s watch. Bloom replaced Mozeliak at the end of the 2025 season. Perhaps all it took was a change in leadership for St. Louis to get back to where it needed to be.
But the Angels arguably need a rebuild more than the Cardinals ever did. They have been stuck at the bottom for several years and have yet to pick a true direction. Mozeliak struggled to pick a direction in St. Louis, so adding somebody like him likely isn’t going to make things any easier for the Angels.
What Angels Can Do at Trade Deadline
The wisest course of action for the Angels is to sell at the trade deadline. If they sell off controllable pieces such as Jose Soriano and Reid Detmers, that could be a good start.
Owner Arte Moreno likely won’t consider this, but a trade of Mike Trout could truly boost one of the league’s worst farm systems and at least lay the groundwork for a plan in the future.
It will be interesting to see what the Angels do, but a case can be made that they need to rebuild more than the Cardinals ever did.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Angels’ John Mozeliak Already Repeating Crucial Mistake From Cardinals Days appeared first on HEAVY.