Reagins Resigns

Reagins experienced his ups and downs
while in the Angels' front office.

After a month of consideration Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim general manager Tony Reagins has decided to resign from his current position with the organization. The decision comes just a week after the Angels were eliminated from postseason contention, missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

Although team president John Carpino has said Reagins, who has two-years left on his contract, will stay with the club as and serve as a special assistant to Chairman Dennis Kuhl.

Reagins, 44, was hired by the Angels on Oct. 16, 2007, succeeding long-time GM Bill Stoneman after he decided to step down. His first order was business was stealing Torii Hunter away from the Minnesota Twins in November of '07 and rapidly become the face of the franchise.

Although, he made many controversial moves during his tenure in Anaheim and it started in the winter of 2008. Reagins let closer Francisco Rodriguez sign a three-year $37 million deal with the New York Mets that offseason after a record-breaking, 62-save regular season. He replaced Rodriguez with left-handed soft tosser Brian Fuentes, who despite leading the league with 48 saves in 2009, quickly became unpopular by the city of Anaheim for his inability to close games out cleanly.

At the 2008 July 31st trading deadline, Reagins made a deal with the Atlanta Braves to bring switch-hitting slugger Mark Teixeira to the Big A, sending fan favorite first baseman Casey Kotchman to the National League.

The move indicated the Angels were all in that season, vying for their second World Series title of the decade. They finished the regular season with the first 100 win season in franchise history and the best record in the majors at 100-62. The script wasn't written the way they had planned as they were swept by the Boston Red Sox in the ALDS.

They would eventually lose Texeira to free agency, leaving a gapping hole at first base.

In August of 2009, Reagins acquired the talented left-hander Scott Kazmir from the Tampa Bay Rays, absorbing the final two-years and $22.5 million left on his contract.

During his time in Anaheim, Kazmir was far from his '07 form, when he led the American League in strikeouts with 239. He was 11-17 in his regular season career with the Angels, posting a 5.31 ERA in 188 innings. The lefty maybe be most remembered for his time in Anaheim by making huge throwing error in the Game 6 of the '09 ALCS.

After only brief stint with the club this year, he was released.

Despite all those questionable moves, Reagins might be remembered most for this past offseason. The one time Angels intern traded catcher Mike Napoli and outfielder Juan Rivera to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for All-Star Vernon Wells, agreeing to inherit the final four-years and $81 million left on his deal, much like he did with Kazmir.

Toronto would turn around and trade Napoli to the Angels division rival Texas Rangers.

Wells had a dismal year for the Angels batting .218 and having the worst on-base percentage in the league at .248. While Rivera struggled adapting to a new environment across the boarder, he would be enjoy a trade back to the National League and hit .274 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, driving in 46 runs over 62 games.

Texas, who was not involved in the initial trade, made out with the biggest steal. Napoli batted a career-high .320 with a .414 on-base percentage and added 30 home runs and 75 RBIs to an already potent Rangers' offense. His .631 slugging percentage ranked highest in the majors.

The Angels also found themselves in the discussion for free agents Carl Crawford and Adrian Beltre, after ownership promised a big offseason. Instead Crawford signed with their arch postseason nemesis in Boston and Beltre, who would have been the most dangerous third baseman they had since Troy Glaus, landed in their division with defending American League champion Rangers. Even though Crawford underachieved his first year in Boston, he is still the prototypical Mike Scioscia player.

There was a lot of heading hanging when
Kazmir was on the bump in Anaheim.

His ability to bunt, run, go first to third and play stellar defense would have fit in perfectly with his small ball mentality.

Reagins' biggest moves last offseason came when he signed left-handers Scott Downs and Hisanori Takahashi.

It was not all bad for the former GM in his time at the helm. He won two AL Western Division titles with a 363-285 record during his tenure. He traded for ace right-hander Dan Haren last season, giving the Halos arguably the best one-two punch atop their rotation.

His final move as GM was no question his best. Before the season's final month he signed ace Jered Weaver to a five-year $85 million extension, keeping him off the open market and away from the vultures in the AL East.

Whether the decision for Reagins to step down was or wasn't a mutual one, its looks to be the right one and MLB is set for a shuffling of the deck this offseason.