Tony Reagins

Tony Demetrius Reagins

• School College of the Desert, California State University, Fullerton
• Born March 11, 1967 in Indio, CA USA

Biographical Information

Tony Reagins was the General Manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim from 2008 to 2011. He was previously Director of Player Development. He started off as the Farm Director for the Angels in 1999. In 2000 and 2001, he was the Angels' Manager of Baseball Operations. It was in 2002 that he became the Angels' Director of Player Development, a position he stuck with for the next few years [1]. After the 2011 season Reagins stepped down. He was one of the few African-Americans to ever serve as a major league General Manager.

Reagins wanted to foster as many homegrown players as he could. He believed that if you can develop players that understand the system, it will be beneficial in the long term [2]. However, he dug his own grave in making an ill-advised trade with the Toronto Blue Jays before the 2011 season, acquiring OF Vernon Wells in return for C/1B Mike Napoli and OF Juan Rivera. Not only was Wells in his decline phase, he had one of the worst contracts in the major leagues, which the Angels were now saddled with, and to make things even more bitter, Napoli emerged as a star with the Texas Rangers.

After stepping down from his role as General Manager, Reagins remained with the Angels as special assistant to team chairman Dennis Kuhl. In 2015, he was hired by Major League Baseball to serve as its senior Vice-President for youth programs, overseeing projects such as the Urban Youth Academy and Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities. He was named the manager of Team USA for the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

Preceded by Bill Stoneman

Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels General Manager 2008-2011

Succeeded by Jerry DiPoto

Further Reading

• Bill Ladson: "Reagins recounts his path to trailblazer GM", mlb.com, December 18, 2020. [3]