The Los Angeles Angels have received permission from the Arizona Diamondbacks to interview Jerry Dipoto, currently Arizona's Senior Vice President of Scouting and Player Development, per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. Dipoto was interim GM for Arizona in July 2010 and traded Dan Haren to the Angels for starting pitcher Joe Saunders and minor leaguers Tyler Skaggs, Patrick Corbin, and Rafael Rodriguez.
Dipoto interviewed for the GM job last year in Arizona, but that post went to Kevin Towers, who saw the Diamondbacks improve from 65 wins to 94 victories and a division title in 2011.
Dipoto is the third GM candidate the Angels have received permission to interview, joining Yankees' executives Damon Oppenheimer and Billy Eppler. However, the net appears far wider than that, according to Will Carroll of Sports Illustrated:
Angels have their GM list down to ten and not in rush with at least two on the list still in playoffs.
The three candidates we know so far all have a heavy scouting background, and if we just look at the four remaining teams in the playoffs we can get an idea of the other possible candidates:
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Texas: assistant GM Thad Levine, also mentioned earlier in the week as a possible candidate; senior director of player personnel A.J. Preller, and senior director of player development Scott Servais
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Detroit: assistant GM Al Avila, director of player development Mike Rojas
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St. Louis: assistant GM Mike Girsch, VP of player procurement Jeff Luhnow
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Milwaukee: director of baseball operations Tom Flanagan, director of amateur scouting Bruce Seid
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