Angel General Manager Candidates on Short List

The search for a general manager to replace Bill Bavasi and overhaul the Angels is becoming more notable for who it appears to be passing over.

In the early stages of what Tony Tavares, president of Disney Sports, hopes will be a quick process, only the names of Billy Beane, who is not available, and Bob Watson, who definitely is, have surfaced.

Watson, formerly the general manager of the New York Yankees and Houston Astros, spoke this week with Tavares.

Watson, 53, earned a solid reputation as a talent evaluator in both organizations, but the strain of working under George Steinbrenner caused his resignation from the Yankees just before spring training 1998. He became baseball’s first black assistant general manager in 1988 and the game’s first black general manager in 1995.

Many of the names that came up in recent general manager searches in Milwaukee and Colorado, and continue to surface in Seattle, are not on the Angels’ early list.

Pat Gillick, who said this week he would not be inclined to consider a general manager job in Anaheim or a club president’s job in Los Angeles, is not among Tavares’ original four.

Neither is Bob Gebhard, fired this summer by the Colorado Rockies. Nor is Danny Evans, an assistant general manager for the Chicago White Sox who spent the past two days interviewing with the Mariners.

Evans has been close to getting general manager jobs in San Diego, St. Louis, Baltimore and Milwaukee.

Dave Stewart, an assistant in Toronto, apparently will not be considered. Fred Claire seems to be a longshot. The Angels certainly would not do Mike Port again. He has interviewed in Seattle, though.

The Angels are, however, serious about Watson, who appears to have his legs under him again after 2 1/2 tumultuous years in New York.