The Los Angeles Angels' front office is again clashing with the coaching staff and it's very possible it doesn't end well this time around.
Manager Mike Scioscia has an opt-out clause in his contract that he can exercise after the 2015 season, which would allow him to forgo the final three years and $18 million on his deal. That could ultimately be the road he chooses to take.
General manager Jerry Dipoto has a team option for the 2016 season. Perhaps the Angels decline it at the end of the year.
"At the end of the 2012, Angels owner Arte Moreno resolved the tension between general manager Jerry Dipoto and manager Mike Scioscia by retaining both and forcing them to keep working together," writes FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal, whose story covers the entire alleged feud between the two sides.
"Nearly three years later, that tension is back and far more pervasive, extending to the Angels coaches and even the players, according to major-league sources.
"Emotions simmered in a series of meetings over the weekend when Dipoto expressed frustration with the coaches' failure to convey scouting information to the players, sources said. At least one coach responded heatedly to Dipoto and first baseman Albert Pujols issued a pointed rebuttal to his GM, sources said ...
"The rift between the two in 2012 stemmed in part from Scioscia's resistance to data prepared by Dipoto and his staff. The current problems are rooted in a similar issue."
Scioscia did not offer any specifics after Monday's game and Dipoto did not comment on the matter.
The Angels' front office seemingly hopes to move toward a more statistical approach while Scioscia, apparently, continues to operate as an old-school manager. According to sources, Dipoto believes that the coaching staff relies too much on "feel" rather than the data provided through statistical analysis. The Houston Astros, who are ahead of the Angels by four games in the AL West, are at the forefront of the analytical data movement, which likely irks Dipoto, especially since the statistically-driven Oakland Athletics won the division in 2012 and 2013.
"The coaches, in turn, seemingly do not trust the information they are given, and either are not willing or able to translate it for the players," Rosenthal adds.
Dipoto was hired as general manager after the 2011 season (the second straight year the Angels missed the playoffs) and then experienced two more postseason-less years before the club was swept by the Kansas City Royals in the ALDS in 2014.
Scioscia won the 2002 World Series in just his third season as the Angels' manager, but since then the team has a 10-22 record in the postseason and recently witnessed their longest playoff drought since 1998-2001. With one of the highest payrolls in baseball and arguably the league's best player (Mike Trout), it's not farfetched to think some changes need to be made within the organization if things don't go as planned this year.
If Scioscia and Dipoto can't see eye-to-eye before the season ends - and if the tension is as significant as Rosenthal's report suggests - it's possible one of these men moves on.
