Speaking publicly for the first time since dismissing his GM in the first of a handful of moves that promise to reshape the front office, Angels owner Arte Moreno said “it’s not a purge” or a knee-jerk reaction to a second consecutive year of missing out on the playoffs and losing money.

“I just felt we weren’t going in the direction we needed to go in and we needed a change,” Moreno said, emphasizing that he had come to that realization “over a period of time.”

“Everybody thinks I’m being very impulsive but the decisions that have been made had been coming for awhile,” he said. “I don’t think anybody (in the organization) was shocked. It’s not like I woke up and said we’re going to do this. It’s one of those deals where we’ve had discussions for awhile now and felt we needed to improve as an organization but we weren’t heading in that direction.

“I just felt we needed to make some changes.”

Those changes began with the announcement 10 days ago that Tony Reagins was stepping down after four years as GM. Since then, assistant GM Ken Forsch, special assistant to the GM Gary Sutherland and director of player development Abe Flores as well as long-time scout Rich Schlenker have been relieved of their duties.

Those moves continue a two-year trend that included last fall’s dismissals of scouting director Eddie Bane, four scouts (including Dale Sutherland) and support staff including trainer Ned Bergert. Most of the people fired in the past two years had been with the Angels at least 10 years and were inherited by Moreno when he bought the team in 2003

Moreno made few changes in his first few seasons as owner. But the turnover of the past two years is a clear sign that Moreno is seeking new voices in the decision-making process in the Angels’ front office. That impression is strengthened by his positive mentions of the “analytical” young voices brought by Torry Hernandez (manager of baseball operations) and Justin Hollander (an assistant in the player development and scouting department) in the past few years.

The moves also clear the decks for the new general manager to put his own people in place, something Moreno felt was necessary to increase the pool from which he can choose the next GM.

The search for that new GM is in the “exploratory” stage, the owner said. Internal discussions involving Moreno, team president John Carpino, chairman Dennis Kuhl, former GM Bill Stoneman and manager Mike Scioscia have begun. But the Angels have not finalized a list of candidates nor have they contacted any other teams to seek permission to interview anyone.

“Right now, we’re sort of putting a list together,” Moreno said. “We’ve had some people call. We’re just going through the process of seeing who’s available and how we’re going to approach this.”

Moreno said he doesn’t necessarily think the next GM has to have prior experience in that role. He declined to talk of any specific candidates, but the Angels do not seem inclined to get into what would amount to a bidding war for an established GM (like Boston’s Theo Epstein, Oakland’s Billy Beane or New York’s Brian Cashman).

Moreno boiled his early wish list down to three areas.

“I think you want a good baseball man – or I should say baseball person because there are some qualified women out there – because you want to be able to evaluate talent,” Moreno said. “You also want him to be able to manage a (minor-league) system so you have to look at someone who can evaluate how we’re drafting and developing players. And you also want someone with good communication skills.

“You know – we won 86 games. So the organization is not completely broken. But obviously, we’re not playing (in the post-season). After 162 games, watching every pitch probably more than is good for me, you understand where your weaknesses are and you want to improve and get to that next level. … I guess my expectations (this season) were to win 90-plus games. My expectations were to be in the playoffs and I think the fans have those same expectations. Why shouldn’t we have high expectations?”

Any GM candidate interviewed by the Angels is certain to have some questions about what to expect if he takes the job. Many of those questions will center on Scioscia’s role in the organization and the industry-wide perception that he wields more power than most managers – and had more power in the Angels’ organization than Reagins over the past four years.

Moreno addressed that perception by insisting Scioscia “is our manager, he’s not our general manager” while admitting that Scioscia has input into any personnel decisions.

“I think there’s a difference between communicating and making the call,” Moreno said. “Mike communicates very well. … Mike has a voice but he’s not making the call.”

Moreno also dismissed the idea that last January’s trade for Vernon Wells was the final straw that cost Reagins his job as “a complete overstatement.” While expressing disappointment in Wells’ performance in 2010, Moreno tried to defend the trade in comparison to the Red Sox’s signing of free-agent Carl Crawford (a player the Angels pursued last winter). He pointed out that the Angels might be stuck with a $63 million commitment to Wells over the next three years – but the Red Sox are tied to Crawford (almost as large a disappointment for the Red Sox in 2011 as Wells was for the Angels) for another six years and $122 million.

“Our baseball people made some decisions that did not work out on the baseball field,” Moreno said – leaving unspoken an obvious connection. Most of those “baseball people” have been dismissed in the past 10 days.

“The changes have been made,” he said. “Any time you make changes, it’s rough.”