{"id":276352,"date":"2025-11-11T12:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/276352\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:59:09","slug":"torii-hunter-bullish-on-angels-future-theyll-be-a-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/276352\/","title":{"rendered":"Torii Hunter bullish on Angels’ future: ‘They’ll be a force’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Trout National<\/a> does not formally open until April. But, when you\u2019re Mike Trout<\/a>, you can invite your friends to play a couple rounds on the course that carries your name.<\/p>\n

And so it was that Trout, the best player in Angels history, last week welcomed Torii Hunter<\/a>, one of the most popular and respected players in Angels history. The course, designed by Tiger Woods and his team, is located in Trout\u2019s hometown of Millville, N.J., and includes a refueling stop in \u201ca concrete bunker tucked behind the 14th tee and styled like a classic baseball dugout.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Hunter: \u201cIt\u2019s a great course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter could have managed his former teammate next season, had the Angels<\/a> chosen him to replace Ron Washington<\/a>. However, for the second time in three years, the Angels interviewed Hunter for their managerial vacancy and then hired someone else \u2014 this time, former Angels catcher Kurt Suzuki<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hunter, speaking Monday at Pelican Hill Golf Club in Newport Coast before a fundraiser for Major League Baseball\u2019s Urban Youth Academy in Compton, said he interviewed with Angels general manager Perry Minasian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hunter said he believed Suzuki would do well in the position and had no hard feelings about the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great interview,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cWe had a good talk. It just didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity presented itself. They were looking for a manager, and they decided to interview me for the job. They told me to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still love the Angels. That\u2019s why I did it. That\u2019s why I wanted to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He felt the same way about his original team, the Minnesota Twins. He said he \u201cput my name in the hat\u201d for the Twins\u2019 managerial vacancy and had informal discussions with the team, but no formal interview.<\/p>\n

Hunter declined to discuss details of his interview with Minasian.<\/p>\n

The Angels have baseball\u2019s longest playoff drought<\/a>, now at 11 years, and have finished in last place in back-to-back seasons. Hunter said prospects need to get to Anaheim and start playing with the young players already there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think those guys have got a couple of years under their belts,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to go out there and really compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Angels\u2019 minor league system is widely regarded as one of baseball\u2019s thinnest<\/a>. Hunter, who worked as a special assistant to Minasian last season, said he sees a fair amount of talent at the lower levels of the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they don\u2019t win the World Series next year,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cMaybe they don\u2019t go to the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cA shift in the team dynamic depends on the pieces that they add. But, in the next two years, you\u2019re going to see these guys, and they\u2019ll be a force to be reckoned with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter said he is unsure yet whether his business interests \u2014 he owns five restaurants and two coffee shops, in addition to commercial real estate investments \u2014 will allow him to continue as an Angels special assistant. He hopes to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Kurt Suzuki,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cI played with him with the Twins in 2015, and I played against him forever. I love everything about him. I would love to be there to help him along the way if I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suzuki agreed to a one-year contract, which puts him in the uncomfortable position of being a lame duck before he manages his first game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019ll be fine,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to give him time, and a chance to get to know the fellas. The guy is smart, he\u2019s intelligent, he\u2019s got great relationship skills. So, be patient.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trout National does not formally open until April. But, when you\u2019re Mike Trout, you can invite your friends…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[15835,49,48,8627,20650,126378,13865,126379,4011,3965,462,42056,126377,61527,82,43289,2341,122763,2552],"class_list":["post-276352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-angels","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-course","tag-force","tag-formal-interview","tag-guy","tag-managerial-vacancy","tag-mike-trout","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-position","tag-said-hunter","tag-second-time","tag-sports","tag-suzuki","tag-team","tag-torii-hunter","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}