Angels GM Perry Minasian gave an update on the club’s managerial search on the first day of the annual General Managers Meetings on Tuesday and added that pitching coach Matt Wise, hitting coach Marcus Thames and catching coach Drew Butera have left the organization. Additionally, the Angels are set to replace strength-and-conditioning coaches Matt Tenney and Adam Auer. 

Minasian, speaking to reporters at the Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa in Arizona, said the Angels are making progress in their managerial search but aren’t quite ready to make a decision. They’ll also have to hire at least three new coaches, with Wise, Thames and Butera joining the White Sox coaching staff. 

“It’s obviously a really, really important decision,” Minasian said. “We're very active with discussions with different candidates. We're not going to rush it. When we find the right person, we find the right person. Doing these types of searches and background, there's a lot of qualified people that have done a lot in this game and have a lot to give. So I'm excited to see where we end up.” 

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The Angels have been linked to experienced candidates such as Buck Showalter, Ron Washington and Ron Roenicke, but there are others they’ve been linked to without big league managerial experience such as Benji Gil, Torii Hunter, Gary DiSarcina and Darin Erstad. The Angels are believed to favor experience, but Minasian said it’s not the only quality he’s looking for in a manager. 

“It's nice to have experience in anything to a certain extent, but that's not the end-all deal,” Minasian said. “We're trying to find the right person. And I think we've seen managers have success that hadn’t managed before, right? I’m sure you can look and find examples of managers that are managing today that hadn't managed previously and have had pretty good careers to this point. So we're open to anything.” 

Minasian reiterated that he doesn’t have a firm timeline because he wants to make sure the Angels make the right choice after their decision to not pick up Phil Nevin’s option for 2024. 

“Personally, I don't take it lightly,” Minasian said. “There's a certain relationship you have with a manager. You're together, right? It's almost like a marriage. You go through some good times, and you go through some tough times. Seasons are up and down. And you have to have somebody that you can have conversations with that can be honest with you. Again, we've been very impressed with who we’ve spoken to.”

Minasian said the new manager will have input on the coaching staff, which is why Angels coaches were told they were free to pursue outside opportunities. Wise had been a pitching coach since the 2021 season, Butera joined the organization in ’22, and Thames was hired before last season. 

“We basically put everything on hold with the coaching staff until we hire a manager,” Minasian said. “The manager needs to be a big part of that process of hiring a coaching staff. We've had three coaches leave at this point. We've told the other coaches that everything's on hold. So first order of business is finding the right guy to the lead the club, and then we'll dive into that.”