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Tony Reagins gets contract extension
November 6th, 2009, 2:35 pm · 30 Comments · posted by Sam Miller, The Orange County Register
The Angels announced a “long-term contract extension” for General Manager Tony Reagins.
Here’s what Reagins has done since he was promoted in October 2007:
- Signed Torii Hunter (5 years, $90 million);
- Re-signed Juan Rivera to a three-year deal ($12.75 million);
- Signed Bobby Abreu (1 year, $5 million plus incentives) before 2009;
- Re-signed Abreu for two (and maybe three) more years;
- Traded Casey Kotchman for Mark Teixeira;
- Traded Sean Rodriguez and two prospects for Scott Kazmir;
- Exercised a $15 million club-option for Vladimir Guerrero in 2009;
- Signed Brian Fuentes (two years, $17.5 million);
- Found Matt Palmer on the scrap heap, got an 11-2 record from the emergency fill-in;
- Traded Orlando Cabrera for Jon Garland;
- Signed Ervin Santana to a long-term extension, buying out his arbitration years and at least one year of free agency;
- Let Garland, Teixeira, Garrett Anderson and Francisco Rodriguez leave as free agents, reaping a windfall of draft picks.
- Stood pat during early 2009 struggles, strengthening the bullpen and starting rotation from within;
- Oversaw the draft of a bundle of first-round picks in 2009 who largely excelled in shaort minor league stints this year.
Looking at that record, I like the extension a lot. I doubted the Hunter deal at the time and it has worked out so far. Same with the Juan Rivera deal. Abreu was the steal of the offseason last year, unless you count Matt Palmer. Reagins has made two aggressive mid-season trades to strengthen the team going into the postseason. He understands the concept of sunk costs. He seems cool enough to say so long to veterans rather than overpay for them, and has only signed one player to a deal longer than three seasons.
Here’s the press release from the Angels:
ANAHEIM, CA - The 2009 A.L. West Division champion Angels announced Friday that General Manager Tony Reagins has received a long-term contract extension. Reagins became the 10th General Manager in Club history when he signed an initial three-year contract on October 16, 2007. Per club policy, no terms of the agreement will be released.
“I would like to thank the Moreno Family for their support and confidence as we continue our goal of winning World Championships,” said Reagins. “It is an honor to work with a tremendous group of professionals, both on the baseball and business side of our organization. The vision of this organization, and the dedication of our employees for improvement on a daily basis, makes my role extremely gratifying.”
Since taking over the General Manager position, Reagins has been active in making key personnel transactions including the acquisitions of pitcher Jon Garland (trade with Chicago White Sox), outfielder Torii Hunter (free-agent signing), first baseman Mark Teixeira (trade prior to the non-waiver trade deadline in July), outfielder Bobby Abreu (free-agent signing) and lefthander Scott Kazmir (trade). Along with West Division titles, the Angels have posted a 197- 127 record (.608 winning percentage) during his first two campaigns as General Manager, including a club-record 100 wins in 2008.
As the result of the Angels’ successful 2008 season, Reagins was recognized earlier this year as the recipient of the Andrew “Rube” Foster Award as the American League “Executive of the Year” at the 2008 Legacy Awards (sponsored by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City).
Reagins, 42, has spent 18 seasons in the Angels organization. Prior to his promotion to General Manager, he served six seasons as the Angels’ Director of Player Development. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing the club’s minor league system comprised of seven affiliates, including a club and developmental academy in San Pedro De Macoris, Dominican Republic.
With Reagins’ guidance (2002-07), the Angels’ affiliates reached the playoffs 18 times while capturing 15 division titles and three league titles. The Angels’ farm system posted winning records in four of the six seasons (2003-05-06-07) and was named “Minor League Organization of the Year” in 2003 by The Sporting News.
Under Reagins’ direction, the Angels’ farm system has advanced several players to the Major League roster including, Howie Kendrick, Reggie Willits, Robb Quinlan, Kendry Morales, Erick Aybar, Jeff Mathis, Mike Napoli, Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders, and Kevin Jepsen. In addition, Minor League News named the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim as the “2007 Farm System of the Year.”
In is first season as Director of Player Development, six rookies were on the 2002 World Championship team after not having one rookie on the roster coming out of Spring Training. Those rookies included Brendan Donnelly, Chone Figgins, Francisco Rodriguez, John Lackey, Scot Shields and Jose Molina.
Before serving as Director of Player Development, Reagins spent four years as Manager of Baseball Operations where he worked closely with GM Bill Bavasi, Farm Director Jeff Parker and Scouting Director Bob Fontaine. He also served as a Sponsorship Services Representative from 1996 until returning to Baseball Operations in April of 1998. Additionally, he held an internship in marketing/advertising sales in 1993 before being named Marketing Assistant in 1994.
A native of Indio, CA, Reagins began his career with the Angels as an intern in baseball operations in 1992. He graduated from California State University Fullerton in 1991 with a degree in marketing and earned an AA degree in business administration from the College of the Desert in 1988.
Reagins resides in Fullerton with wife Colleen, daughter Kennedy, and son Luke. Reagins is a member of the Buck O’Neil Scout Association and an active supporter of Major League Baseball’s Urban Youth Academy and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
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Money well spent on someone who does his job very well.
Sam, you forgot the best part. He negotiated the Torii Hunter deal at a Del Taco. That was classic!!!
I’m trying to come up with some of Tony’s “bad moves” but I honestly don’t see any or maybe I’m forgetting something.
The closest would be the OC for Garland trade, and even that wasn’t all that bad considering the Angels had minor league depth at SS.
Well, you can start with their failure to send Warner Madrigal a contract in time, so he became a minor league free agent and signed with the Rangers. So far that one hasn’t come back to bite us, but Warner at the time was an outfield convert to the mound who was throwing high 90s and zooming through the system.
I know this is a minority opinion, but I still think the Kotchman/Marek for Teixeira rental was a mistake. Yes, Casey had a terrible 2009, but that’s not the point. The point is that he would have had more value a year ago and if they wanted to make room for Morales they could have packaged Casey last winter, perhaps in a deal for a starting pitcher. I just think it’s a bad idea to trade young talent for a three-month rental. With 20/20 hindsight, so far it looks like the trade did no harm. But the trade wasn’t made based on hindsight, it was made on the gamble that Teixeira would fall in love with Anaheim and stay. He didn’t. We’re just lucky that Kendry exceeded all his minor league numbers.
Brian Fuentes hasn’t been all that great, but he was cheaper than resigning Frankie who’s too combustible in my opinion (mentally as well as physically). If we hadn’t lost Scot Shields to injury, maybe Fuentes doesn’t pitch in as many pressure situations and does better, who knows.
Sam wrote that Tony “oversaw the draft,” but that’s not really true. With most teams, the scouting director runs the draft with input from the rest of the front office, including the GM. The GM might give some dollar parameters, and on the rare occasion — e.g. Jered Weaver –give guidance to the scouting director on whether to pursue a high-risk draft candidate. But the credit really goes to Eddie Bane and his people.
And sometimes a GM should get credit for NOT doing something. Tony left alone player development. He turned over the reins to Abe Flores. Good people are running the farm system, and they function best when left to do what they do. So credit Tony for not interfering or trying to run the farm system any more after he got promoted.
“I just think it’s a bad idea to trade young talent for a three-month rental. With 20/20 hindsight, so far it looks like the trade did no harm. But the trade wasn’t made based on hindsight, it was made on the gamble that Teixeira would fall in love with Anaheim and stay. He didn’t.”
I’d say generally that’s true, but that was a case of the club desperately needing more power and solid defense at 1B going into the 2008 stretch before entering the postseason. Kotchman was good, but not great.
“Brian Fuentes hasn’t been all that great, but he was cheaper than resigning Frankie who’s too combustible in my opinion (mentally as well as physically). If we hadn’t lost Scot Shields to injury, maybe Fuentes doesn’t pitch in as many pressure situations and does better, who knows.”
No, Fuentes isn’t the best, but he was a (slightly) cheaper option than Frankie for a year less, plus the Angels picked up the draft picks from the Mets when they signed him. The kicker is, Frankie fell apart during the second half of the season (not that it really mattered for the club at that point) posting career highs in walks, WHIP, ERA, and a career low in strikeouts. If Frankie doesn’t have a rebound 2010 for the Mets, my head is gonna pop off.
Getting Scot Shields back in 2010 should be a huge boost to the bullpen, although they definitely need a third lefty arm.
Eddie Bane may well run the scouting department but the people who deserve the credit for finding the talent are the scouts. Thank you Bobby DeJardin for finding Weaver.
Bill Stoneman - good riddance he was the worst! Not sold on Tony Reagins yet. Ken Forsch - one of the greats who should be the General Manager.
Steve Smith wrote an excellent analysis of Tony Reagins’ contributions to the Angels. However, nothing is mentioned about who was responsible for the Gary Matthews Jr. signing.
GMJ was signed by Tony’s predecessor, Bill Stoneman.
In hindsight, picking up Vlad’s option was a mistake, especially later seeing how the free agent market collapsed. Brian Fuentes’ deal didn’t turn out great, but that’s just one of those things that happens. It looked good at the time, Fuentes could salvage it in 2010, and it turns out there wasn’t really a better option internally or externally (unless you saw David Aardsma coming). I don’t mind the Jon Garland/Orlando Cabrera deal, given Erick Aybar and the lack of minor league pitching depth at the time. The Scott Kazmir deal will probably go down as his biggest mistake, or a wonderful success — just too soon to say.
And, of course, Stephen is right that the GM doesn’t get to take a ton of credit for the draft. But if it had gone bad, we’d be blaming him, so I don’t mind giving him some credit for it going well.
Reagins is no Bill Stoneman, that’s for sure…and thank God for that. He has done a lot to acquire some talent for the club - no doubt about it. There have been a couple of areas though that have been a bit touchy. Garland was kind of a wash for Cabrera. OC wasnl;t doing that much on offense, and Garland was coming off a career season, but he didn;t really pan out into the pitcher they had hoped. I think Fuentes has a shot at becoming a worthwhile acquisition - if he decides to read the scouting reports a little more thoroughly. Kazmir - the juy is still out on him. His regular season pitchjing wasn’t bad - but he came on during a time that the team was not giving him any run support. His post season was atrocious though. We’ll see waht 2010 brings. Hunter and Abreu are good acquisitions no doubt. Abreu was the deal of the century.
The only drawback I see is this team’s committment to you know who: Vladimir Guerrero. I don;t care anymore about the windfall of excuses people use in order to support him. He strikes out too much - especially in clutch situations. Sure…he has moments of greatness, but those moments are getting to be really few and far in between…and he doesn’t even play a position anymore. Send him down to Cucamonga to be the team mascot for the Quakes. He’s a $15million albatross.
One transaction not mentioned…the unjust firing of long-time equipment manager Ken Higdon.
I agree. One way to get a team motivated, fire the very well respected clubhouse guy. Tony… Very bad move!
allowing K-Rod to sign with the Mets for $12 million annually (the halos offered $11 million a year) then signing Brian Fuentes for $9 million? - K-Rod for $12 million is a better deal than Fuentes for $9 million - bad tradeoff.
That trade-off allowed them to secure a productive starting left fielder. And K-Rod and Fuentes were essentially the same pitcher in 2009 - only Fuentes had more saves and a better save percentage.
K-Rod’s contract was $37 million over 3 years.
$10.5 / $11.5 / $11.5 plus a 2012 club option for $17.5 million or a $3.5 million buyout.
I don’t believe the Angels were offering anything at that level, and it looks like they were right not to.
BUILD UP THE PITCHING, GOOD 09 TAKE IT TO THE WORLD SERIES 2010
You can’t make every right move as a GM - even on championship teams (unless you can buy every talented free agent on the market, but who in the world can do that?). This is well-deserved even looking at the Guerrero resigning and I’m not too crazy about Fuentes even though he saved some games. I think this year he’ll cave a bit.
Reagins next move should be to trade for Adrian Gonzalez. send Santana-Brandon Wood-Reggie Willits-Mike Napoli and choice of either Palmer or Bell. that would get the job done.then put .then put Kendry Morales in out field Gonzalez at 1st dh Abreu .you pick up a stud bat and with the money you save from not getting a free agent like Holliday you sign John Lackey and Figgins
As we all saw in the 2009 Playoff’s, pitching ultimately wins post season games. LAA need to get 2 solid starters - one to replace Lackey and another Guy that can pitch 200+ innings. They aren’t going to pay Lackey $100M over 6yrs, given the contacts they offer pitchers seldom go beyond 3 yrs, let alone 4 yrs (plus a ‘club’ option). And if you Guys think Escobar and Santana can be counted on for 200+ innings, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.
Bullpen is in solid shape with Shields coming back and lets face it, they aren’t going to eat the Fuentes deal nor is anyone going to trade for it unless the Angels throw in a bunch. So it is what it is. The other Guys can fill in for an inning or two here and there as they showed against the Yankees.
Take the savings from Vlade, Chone and Lackey and go get 2 solid starting pitchers, some decent, clubhouse type Vets that will sign for 2-3 yrs for $10M / year until the kids are ready to show their stuff.
Tony - Congrats on the extension, you certainly earned it!!
The biggest mistake that TR made was throwing away GA! 14 years and nobody talks about how GA owned the Yankees. GA batted .600 against Petit alone! When he let go of GA the New York press wrote about it and said thank you! In my opinion, take back GA and get rid of TR - I will never forgive him for getting rid of a player that was hitting .294 and .380 with RISP- oh yea, good move Tony. I know that if we had GA in the line-up, we would have won the World Series…again.
I do my best to be civil here, but that is just damn ignorant. Did you see what kind of year GA had in 2009? I have always been a big fan of his but it was more than obvious that it was time to cut bait. Both Abreu and Rivera had much better years than he did. He will spend 2010 on the bench, if he finds a team at all. Let it go.
GA is 1 player, he’s not a team of 9. Had we had him, he could have still done well but with how New York played, there is no telling the result. He’s a poor defensive left fielder and things might not have gone well there. While he’s had success against the Yanks, there is a reason the Angels let him go. His bat was getting slower and he wasn’t hitting the way he did years ago. That’s not to say he wouldn’t have done well against the Yanks but taking that into account, it’s also a reason to say he might not have done well this postseason against them either.
Garret this year:
Avg .268 HR 13 RBI 61 Runs 52 SB 1
Against the Yanks this year:
G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
3 13 1 3 1 0 0 2 0 3 0 0 .231 .231 .308 .538
GA saw the Yankees 3 times this year to the Angels 12. Bobby and Juan did nothing in the post season…nothing. Remeber when GA won the world series for the Angels? 14 freakin’ years and the angels let him go batting .294. When Tony let GA go, he had better numbers than Tori did this year.
“When Tony let GA go, he had better numbers than Tori did this year.”
BAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAHAAHAH!!!!!!
BWAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAH!!!!!
BAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!
Those numbers were in his first year facing National league pitchers and by that token, those numbers are solid. Bring him back into the American league and he is hitting 300 and he is in the top three with RISP just like he did when Tony threw him in the trash.
Abreu RISP .354
Rivera RISP .325
Anderson RISP .358 (American league pitchers in 2008)
What did Abreu and Rivera do against the Yankees? Nothin’! GA has owned the Yankees his entire career! Ask the Yankee pitchers who they’d rather face right now!
Eh, I’m not going to bother.
Carlos - you would have won the World Series with GA. Replace his at bats with Juan Rivera’s in the post season. Tony blew it. Carlos I want you to remember this post for when GA comes to town to face the Angels next year. He may hit in 10 RBIs like he did against the Yankees…
Don’t bother Carlos as it is sad that you can’t appreciate his talent.
I would have won the World Series? When did I start managing this team? Hey, while we’re at it let’s get Adam Kennedy back, too, so he can hit 3 home runs again in a clinching game!
I think you missed that part where I said GA is one of my all time favorite players. I just happen to be realistic and can acknowledge when a player is past his prime. Maybe someday you will take those blinders off and grow up.
Give it up TJ. GA is done. Do you really want to suffer with another bout with Pink Eye when it comes to the playoffs? The guy never hustled in the field, nor would he put up an effort to leg out an infield ground ball. Once the ball hit the infield grass, isn’t his on base percentage .001?
Just move to Atlanta and become a Braves Fan!
Adam Kennedy blew out his knee and had major surgery.
I can’t wait until GA makes them pay.
Anybody that says he didn’t hustle, doesn’t know baseball.
Angels will never win another WS because of the management. Keep dreamin’ guys.