Angels have interviewed at least four candidates for general manager
The Angels have interviewed at least four candidates for the general manager opening since recently beginning formal interviews, according to a person with knowledge of the search who was unauthorized to publicly comment.
Among them is Logan White, the Dodgers’ former scouting director and the San Diego Padres’ current director of player personnel and a senior advisor to general manager A.J. Preller.
The Angels also have interviewed the Oakland Athletics’ Billy Owens as well as Amiel Sawdaye and Jared Porter, who are senior vice presidents and assistant general managers of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
White’s fingerprints are all over the Dodgers’ World Series roster. He led the drafts that netted Clayton Kershaw, Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger and Joc Pederson and played a role in the signings of international free agent Julio Urías, as well as Yasiel Puig and Hyun-Jin Ryu.
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Owens has been with the A’s for 22 seasons, 12 of them as director of player personnel and the last five as assistant general manager. A former minor leaguer, he was a hitting coach in the A’s minor league system and a scout.
Owens distinguished himself as a premier evaluator of talent before he took on the role of assistant GM. The San Jose native played football and baseball at Arizona, out of which the Baltimore Orioles drafted him in 1992.
Sawdaye oversees the Diamondbacks’ amateur and international scouting. Before landing in Arizona in 2016, he spent 15 years with the Boston Red Sox and won three World Series. His last post in Boston was as vice president of amateur and international scouting. He oversaw the drafts of Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr. and others.
Sawdaye, who earned a degree in decisions information systems from the University of Maryland in 1999, began his pro baseball journey in 2002 as an intern in Boston’s baseball operations department. He worked under the likes of Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer and Ben Cherington.
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Since moving into pro baseball in 2004, Porter has been part of four World Series-winning front offices. He worked with Sawdaye in Boston from 2004 to ’15 before spending the next season with the Chicago Cubs. In Chicago, he directed pro scouting and was a special assistant in 2016. He has a connection to current Angels manager Joe Maddon, who led the Cubs to the World Series that year.
Porter got his start with Boston in player development, climbing from intern to assistant director, before pivoting to pro scouting. He played baseball and hockey at Bowdoin College, where he earned a degree in history.
None of the four candidates has experience leading a baseball operations department. Under owner Arte Moreno, the Angels hired a first-timer two of the previous three occasions the job was open. Jerry Dipoto briefly served as interim GM before coming to Anaheim.
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