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What Does the Brad Ausmus Hire Say About the Organizational Approach to 2019 and 2020?

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports


Since quite a few people in the Angels fan community were seemingly taken by surprise about the hiring of Brad Ausmus as the new manager it may be worth examining what this hire says about the organizational strategy in the important final two years of Mike Trout's contract (2019 and 2020).

There are some people in the HH community who feel the club would be best served by taking a conservative financial approach to free agency etc, while simultaneously focusing on continuing to build the farm system and preserving the top talent that is already there. Over this past season there were many fiery discussions about whether trading young talent for proven top tier arms would be wise or unwise, and more generally whether it is wiser for the team to build slowly and methodically, or perhaps to be more aggressive and active in the pursuit of free agents, or to use some of the highly valued youth as chips in a trade.

My position on this could be called "the middle road." I do want to protect and nurture certain of our highly touted youngsters, (Jo Adell for one) but I also feel it is crucial for the team to make great strides towards the goal of again winning a World Championship, not least of all due to Mike Trout's recent intimations that he is getting tired of losing and wants to be competing in the playoffs (some folks might have been mistakenly assuming that the easy-going Trout would simply accept whatever circumstances fate had seemingly left at his doorstep).

So, how will the departure of Scioscia and the arrival of Brad Ausmus impact Trout's eventual decision about whether to stay or to go? It is hard to say. Most probably, the decision will come down to how much the 2018 Angels can improve their roster, and ultimately their performance on the field. With a new, analytics driven approach on the verge of being fully implemented in the dugout, it now remains for Angels GM Billy Eppler to fill some significant holes that could hold the Angels back from reaching their goals. While it is not clear just how much money Eppler will be given to work with this winter, it is now clear that team owner Arte Moreno is not about to tie the hands of his new manager with a Scrooge-like reluctance to open his pocketbook, having said "I'm not going to tell you that we're going to spend a ton of money, but we're going to spend money."

It still remains to be seen exactly how much Billy Eppler will have to work with, but estimates go from $30 million to about $50 million.

But what does the Ausmus hiring tell us about Arte's philosophy (like many I feel that Arte has at least somewhat learned from his past mistakes of meddling too much in baseball decisions and is now ready to more or less stand back and let Billy unfurl his plan) or perhaps more importantly, Billy Eppler's? The fact that Billy chose Ausmus over the inexperienced Eric Chavez could be indicative of the seriousness with which he takes the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Of course, this is but one interpretation. We will only really be able to see if Billy is all in on 2019 when the Free Agent signings begin. In the meantime, there are other hints that Eppler feels that it is indeed important for the Halos to win now. During the press introduction of Ausmus the Angels new manager emphasized that he wants to win now.

I posted a Fan Shot of a short video clip in which Ausmus says this, however, with this Fan Post I thought I would include the entire press conference. To me, the things that Brad said bode well for the direction of the team, especially if you are in the camp that says the Angels should be pushing all their chips to the middle of the table this year and next. Brad Ausmus stated in his introduction that "I care about the Los Angeles Angels, and I care about winning today."

But before you counter that this is simply a meaningless sound-bite, consider that he could just as easily have said something like "I look forward to being a part of what we're building here." We did not hear any lines about building for the future or developing a team that can compete at the highest level. What we did hear is that Ausmus is committed to winning a World Series ring and that he wants to win now. I for one am happy to hear this.

This FanPost is authored by an independent fan. Tell us what you think and how you feel.

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