ANAHEIM, Calif. — Los Angeles Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto says he has resigned, but the team is refusing to confirm his departure.
Dipoto told the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register on Wednesday that he has quit after 3 1/2 years with the Angels, but manager Mike Scioscia and Angels spokesman Tim Mead repeatedly declined to acknowledge any changes ahead of a team meeting before their game against the New York Yankees.
Dipoto’s mostly successful tenure apparently came to an abrupt end shortly after details of another team meeting were leaked to Fox Sports. Scioscia and Dipoto previously have clashed over philosophical differences during the GM’s tenure, and the latest dispute reportedly concerned Dipoto’s desire for the Angels to play with more attention to statistical analysis and scouting reports.
Scioscia still claims he is working well as a team with Dipoto, but the executive apparently is leaving the big-budget Angels (41-37), who have won four straight games to move a season-high four games over .500. Scioscia repeatedly claimed he didn’t know what was going on with Dipoto during his pregame availability, saying he hadn’t spoken to Dipoto in the past 24 hours.
“I think our team is pretty focused,” Scioscia said before Wednesday’s game. “I think you can see that, so I don’t know if there is anything along those lines, as far as a distraction. I think we’ve been playing well on the field, and hopefully that’s our focus.”
Scioscia is the longest-tenured manager in baseball, running the Angels’ dugout since 2000. He is signed through 2018, but can opt out of the deal this winter.
The Angels’ players learned about Dipoto’s impending departure from news reports, but they’ve endured their share of bizarre episodes with mercurial owner Arte Moreno’s franchise.
Earlier this season, an angry Moreno traded Josh Hamilton back to Texas, eating an astonishing portion of his $125 million contract just to be rid of the troubled, underachieving former American League MVP who was hoping for a comeback.
Dipoto has had a moderately successful tenure with the Angels, who won 98 games and the AL West title last season in their only playoff appearance under his leadership. His contract option for 2016 was picked up earlier this season by the Angels, who are playing some of their best baseball of a mediocre season over the past two weeks.
Scioscia and Dipoto first clashed in 2012 when Dipoto fired Mickey Hatcher, Scioscia’s longtime hitting coach and friend, again over an apparent resistance to statistical analysis. After Moreno forced them to keep working together, the two appeared to mend their relationship in recent years, but it apparently frayed again this year with the Angels’ mediocre start to the season.
Thumbnail photo via Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports Images