On his final day as the St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations, John Mozeliak was asked if he could see himself one day running another baseball team.He chuckled before quickly denying the notion. “I don’t envision myself doing that,” Mozeliak said last October. “Could I have some connection to the game at some point? Possibly. But I do think that for the next couple of months, I’d really like to just catch my breath and step away.”Eight months later, the former long-time executive of one of the National League’s winningest franchises is back at the helm of a different organization. After 30 years with St. Louis, including 18 as the organization’s top executive, Mozeliak was named the interim general manager of the Los Angeles Angels on June 26.“It was not something when I walked away from St. Louis that I thought I would be doing this quickly,” Mozeliak said Thursday in a phone interview with The Athletic. “But it became something where I felt really energized about going back.”Mozeliak’s new job is no easy feat. He was tasked with helping rebuild a perennial losing franchise while working for deeply involved owner Arte Moreno — who doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being easy to work with.The Angels are a far cry from what Mozeliak oversaw in St. Louis: 15 consecutive winning seasons, 10 postseason berths, six division titles, two National League pennants and a World Series championship in 2011. He was, and remains, very close with Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., with their relationship mirroring more of a family partnership than a business one.But the challenge of stepping into an organization with virtually no familiarity sparked something in Mozeliak. The firing of former general manager Perry Minasian in late June came as a surprise, not because of the Angels’ annual struggles but because of the timing. The MLB draft was just over two weeks away, with the trade deadline quickly behind it. That Minasian was not replaced internally, but with Mozeliak — a name synonymous with St. Louis for so long — sent shockwaves through the industry.“We were both compelled to really try to do things a little differently here,” Mozeliak said, speaking of his initial conversations with Angels team president Molly Jolly. “My excitement started to grow because it just became really like a compelling and interesting project to be a part of. It became something where I went from not wanting to really work in baseball anymore to definitely wanting to try to solve this.”Mozeliak’s rejuvenation is evident in his operations. It’s been nearly seven weeks since the 57-year-old joined the Angels. Since then, he’s navigated the draft, giving full autonomy to the Angels’ scouting department. A couple of weeks later, he shipped out seven big leaguers from the roster and picked up nine minor-league prospects at the trade deadline. And earlier this week, he fired pitching coaches Mike Maddux and Darryl Scott along with bullpen coach Dom Chiti, citing inconsistency in implementing and applying available technology to assist pitchers.