ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels have introduced Jerry Dipoto as their new general manager.

Owner Arte Moreno said Saturday that Dipoto will provide fresh ideas to the Angels, who have missed the playoffs the past two seasons despite a hefty payroll.

Dipoto was an executive with the Arizona Diamondbacks the past six seasons. The former major league pitcher has worked alongside Josh Byrnes, Theo Epstein and several top young personnel executives earlier in his career.

He believes the Angels need to make only tweaks to their roster contend for their seventh postseason berth in 11 seasons next year.

Dipoto replaces Tony Reagins, who resigned two days after the Angels finished 10 games behind Texas in the AL West.

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On Saturday, Oct. 29, the Los Angeles Angels named Arizona Diamondbacks executive Jerry DiPoto as the team’s new general manager. He replaces Tony Reagins, who remains with the team as a special assistant.

I think this is a great hire for the Angels. DiPoto has been involved with Major League Baseball as either a player or executive since 1989, and has proven himself as a solid candidate for the job. He’s one of the men responsible for the Diamondbacks’ worst-to-first turnaround from the 2010 season to this year.

DiPoto was the senior vice president for scouting and player development for Arizona, which should mean something for Angels fans. This is what DiPoto specializes in. The Angels have struggled to develop some of its recent top prospects (Brandon Wood(notes) comes to mind), and the farm system itself is no longer the well full of talent it used to be. DiPoto will be responsible for reversing this trend. The Angels have their share of aging veterans, especially in the outfield, and talent needs to be developed from within the organization to take their place.

Given his track record with the Diamondbacks, I’m excited to see what DiPoto can do with a team that will be able to give him more financial backing to do his job. I would think he’d also have a say in filling the other open front-office positions, including farm director and assistant GM. In other words, DiPoto will have an opportunity to completely reshape the Angels’ system.

Some fans may argue that there isn’t a need to re-vamp the Angels front office, but I think the team’s results on the field in the past two years show something different. The club hasn’t been awful by any means, but the Angels have played below expectations for the payroll they carry. Their system has become stale, and even though the team has youngsters Mike Trout(notes) and Mark Trumbo(notes) developed and ready to perform at the Major League-level, changes need to be made.

The truth is the Angels don’t have the income to maintain the payroll they’ve had in the past few years. They need to develop from within if the Angels are ever going to win another World Series. Signing over-priced free agents isn’t the answer. I believe the club acknowledged that when they chose DiPoto instead of someone known for wheeling and dealing for veterans.

The Angels made a good decision with DiPoto, and I can’t wait to see how well he does preparing the team for the future. I predict he’ll have an outstanding career leading the team’s front office.

Derek Ciapala has been a fan of the Angels since childhood. His favorite Angels moment is when they won the 2002 World Series in seven games over the San Francisco Giants. You can follow him on Twitter @dciapala.

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Read More: Dan Haren (P – ANA), Los Angeles Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks

The Los Angeles Angels are expected to make their hiring of Jerry Dipoto as their next general manager official with a press conference at noon on Saturday. Dipoto, formerly the head of scouting and player development for the Arizona Diamondbacks, beat out a long list of candidates for the Angels’ GM job. The response to the hiring of Dipoto has been overwhelmingly positive.

Dipoto’s former boss in Arizona, Kevin Towers, had a glowing review of Dipoto in September, telling Nick Piecoro the Arizona Republic, “He has tremendous recall. He knows players. He’s very organized, thorough, has people skills and work ethic. Really, there are no negatives. Do I think he’ll be a good GM? I think he’ll be outstanding.”

Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register noted the hiring of Dipoto marked a sizable shift for the Angels, noting “The hiring of Dipoto is a change – it is the first time the Angels have filled a significant position on the baseball side of the front office from outside the organization since then-GM Bill Stoneman hired Eddie Bane as director of scouting in 2003.”

As interim GM of the Diamondbacks in 2010, DiPoto traded Dan Haren to the Angels, and the pitcher recalled his time with Dipoto with Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles. “Jerry was great. I really only knew him for a few months, but I interacted quite a bit with him leading up to me being traded to the Angels. He was easy to talk to and very up front. I know he was highly respected and thought-of in the Diamondbacks organization,” Haren said. “It’s a good signing for our club and a good start to the off-season.”

Keith Law of ESPN called DiPoto “one of the most research-oriented people I’ve come across on the scouting/[player development] side of the business” and said of all the candidates for the Angels’ GM job, Law would have chosen Dipoto.

Dipoto will be the 11th general manager in Angels’ history.

For more on the Angels, head to Halos Heaven.

A person with knowledge of the hire says the Los Angeles Angels have chosen Jerry Dipoto to be their new general manager. / AP

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