Arte Moreno shocked the entire Los Angeles Angels fan base when he announced on Monday that he is no longer selling the team and will remain the owner of the Angels for 2023 and beyond.
Moreno, who bought the team back in May of 2003, announced this past August that he will explore the sale of the franchise. The reported reasoning for putting the team up for sale was that Moreno’s children had no interest in inheriting the team when Moreno was ready to move on.
Forbes has the Angels estimated value at $2.2 billion and the crown jewel for potential bidders because of the superstars of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, the large media market, and plenty of land around the stadium to develop.
The Athletic’s Sam Blum reported that the Angels had five potential bidders and were expecting to receive offers in February with the expectation that the team was going to sell for well over $2.5 billion. Moreno bought the Angels for $183.3 million back in 2003 so he is leaving just over $2.3 billion on the table by changing his mind.
The news came as a shock to Angels fans, who have been ready for new ownership for quite some time now. The Anaheim faithful have rightfully grown frustrated with the lack of success in the last decade with two of the greatest players the game of baseball has ever seen.
The Angels have not made the playoffs since 2014 when they got swept by the Wild Card winning Kansas City Royals in the American League Division Series and have not won a playoff game since 2009 when they faced the eventual World Series winning New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
If you have come across Angels fans on Twitter over the last few years, you know that Moreno is not a popular man among the fan base. If you look hard enough, you will find Twitter accounts dedicated to hating on Moreno and calling for him to sell the team. There have also been multiple instances where fans have gotten terms like “Arte sell” trending on Twitter.
The frustrations that Angels fans have against Moreno are issues that stem back over a decade and they continue to grow as more years go by when the Angels fail to field a competitive team.
Moreno bought the Angels just five months after they won their first World Series championship in the franchise’s 41 year history. It was also at the start of what is known as the Angels’ “Golden Age” which includes almost a decade run of trips to the post season or just missing out.
Moreno inherited a deep roster with the fifth-best farm system in all of baseball according to Baseball America’s rankings, which would rank first in the league just two years later. Moreno would even make a couple of big splashes in free agency to bolster an already deep roster by adding future Hall of Fame outfielder Vladimir Guerrero and 2005 Cy Young winning pitcher Bartolo Colon.
Things were good for Moreno and the Angels in the 2000s, winning the American League West in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009 and being just a couple of wins short from reaching the World Series again in 2005 and 2009.
And it is not like the Angels lost in disappointing fashion in the playoffs either. All of the teams that eliminated the Angels in the playoffs besides the 2008 Boston Red Sox went on to win the World Series.
Arte Moreno was enjoying the honeymoon phase of his ownership and even got brownie points from the fans right away when he lowered ticket and beer prices right after he officially took over.
The first thing that Moreno did to displease the fans was changing the name from the Anaheim Angels to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2005 and then just to the Los Angeles Angels in 2015.
Moreno did this just so he could make more money by claiming to be in the Los Angeles media market, which is much larger than Anaheim’s although Anaheim is not that bad of a market.
Then after missing the playoffs in 2010, Angels fans started to notice some of Moreno’s flaws. The first big mistake that Moreno made was firing long-time scouting director Eddie Bane.
Bane was the man in charge of the draft room, and he had built a top-five farm system in all of baseball during his time with Anaheim. Most noteworthy was his just-about-perfect 2009 draft.
The Angels 2009 draft class saw eight players make it to the big leagues and in the first two rounds alone, produced Randal Grichuk, Mike Trout, Tyler Skaggs, Garret Richards, and Patrick Corbin. Those eight players that made it to the MLB combined for 121.2 bWAR so far. Granted, 82.4 of that is Trout, but it is still remarkable to draft that many players that are MLB regulars.
Since Bane was fired, the Angels have heavily struggled to draft and develop talent and have had their farm system ranked in the bottom five of the league for a decade now.
After letting Bane go, Moreno told the Los Angeles Times that he was going to spend to get the Angels back to the playoffs.
After whiffing on big name free agents, Adrian Beltre, Carl Crawford, and Cliff Lee, Moreno panicked and traded Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera to the Toronto Blue Jays for outfielder Vernon Wells. Wells was coming off his first all-star appearance in four years and it appeared that the Angels were taking a chance that the 32 year-old veteran could figure things out and play more consistently.
Wells struggled in his two years in Anaheim, hitting a measly .222/.258/.409 with just 36 home runs in his Angels tenure. The lack of production was not the biggest problem that the Angels faced with Wells, it was his contract.
When the Angels made the trade, they took on all of Wells’ remaining four years $72 million of his contract. Moreno faced criticism for taking on that contract, given how poorly he had produced in the few years leading up to the trade, with the exception of 2010, and his abysmal two seasons in Anaheim.
Just before the 2013 season started, the Angels traded Wells to the Yankees and retained $28.1 million of the $42 million left on his contract. The best solution for the Angels was to pay Wells $28.1 million to not play for the Angels.
Wells would be the first domino to fall for the Angels to sign aging veterans to big-money contracts and have them blow up in their faces.
After missing the playoffs again in the 2011 season, Moreno brought out the checkbook and went to spending. The Angels signed 31, about to be 32, year-old sure-fire Hall of Famer Albert Pujols to a ten-year $254 million deal and 31-year-old starting pitcher C.J. Wilson to a five-year $77.5 million deal.
I will give Moreno credit that Wilson was a fine pitcher in his time with the Angels. The contract was still a little steep for the production, but Wilson was a decent starter for the Angels’ rotation.
Pujols on the other hand got hit by father time sooner than anticipated and was a far below-average player for the majority of his contract. In terms of bWAR, where two is an average MLB player, Pujols was a below average player seven out of his ten seasons in Anaheim. Pujols accumulated -1.9 bWAR from 2017 to 2021, ultimately leading to the Angels designating Pujols for assignment and releasing him while still paying him $30 million in 2021 as a 41 year-old.
Then the following off-season, Moreno decided to hand out a five-year $125 million contract to outfield slugger Josh Hamilton. Hamilton would go from an MVP candidate in the few years before joining the Angels to, you guessed it, a below-average player.
Hamilton slashed .302/.359/.542 with the Texas Rangers for six seasons, then came to the Angels and slashed .255/.316/.426 while only lasting two seasons in Anaheim before getting traded back to the Rangers for cash considerations and the Angels would eat the remainder of his contract.
Are you seeing a pattern now?
Well the Angels were not done and a few years later, the Angels would trade for Justin Upton at the 2017 non-waiver trade deadline. A few months later, Upton would sign a five year $106 million extension with the Angels.
After having a solid 2018 campaign, Upton’s production nose-dived and he would slash .211/.299/.414 from 2019-2021 and would be designated for assignment and released by the Angels just before the 2022 season.
And finally, after whiffing on top free agent pitcher Gerrit Cole, Moreno hit the panic button again and dished out a seven-year $245 million contract to all-star third baseman Anthony Rendon after the 2019 season. At the time of the signing, Angels fans were excited because Rendon had been one of the most consistent hitters in all of baseball and just got off of a monster year where he helped the Washington Nationals win their first World Series.
Rendon’s first year went according to plan, slashing .286/.418/.497 while playing stellar defense at the hot corner. Then Rendon got off to a slow start in 2021 and after just 58 games played, he would get shut down for the year for hip surgery. Then Rendon got off to an even slower start this past season and after just 47 games played, was shut down for the rest of the year for season ending wrist surgery and now this contract is looking just as bad as all of the others.
Now, some will say “hey at least the Angels have an owner who is willing to spend on his team” but is he spending on the team to get better or just getting the big names to sell jerseys and tickets?
According to Spotrac, the Angels’ 2023 payroll is projected to be just a tick under $173 million, which is the tenth highest in baseball. But the problem is that 61.2% of their entire payroll is dedicated to just three players. You cannot expect to win ball games when over 60% of your payroll is going to just three players.
This has been one of the biggest gripes that Angels fans have had with Moreno. Moreno will throw big money out to the biggest name on the market so he can get more jersey and ticket sells, but when it comes to completing the roster, he penny-pinches.
The penny-pinching does not stop at the free agency market either, Moreno has cut back funding for the scouting and development teams as well as not spending the money to improve the conditions for the Angels’ minor leaguers. The Angels are one of the last teams in MLB to not provide housing for their minor leaguers or pay their minor leaguers for Spring Training.
It is so bad, that there are numerous minor leaguers in the Angels farm system that live in their cars or pile into apartments and sleep on the floor. How can you develop major league baseball players in conditions like this?
Because Moreno has cut back on scouting and refuses to invest in his minor leaguers, the Angels have had one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball year in and year out for a decade now. With little to no talent being produced in house, and no prospects to use as assets to make a trade, the Angels have been handcuffed to only the free agent market to fill out the roster, which we know will be an all or nothing type of deal.
This is why the Angels continue to have a roster filled with studs and scrubs. The Angels have had zero depth for quite some time and it is the main reason why they have missed the playoffs for eight straight seasons.
Good teams have a lot of average players with some really good players mixed in. The Angels have some star power but the rest of the roster are borderline AAA minor leaguers. This explains why the Angels collapse when they start to get injured. There is no depth player to pick up some of the slack in the meantime.
Moreno’s penny-pinching ways were even exposed during last year’s MLB lockout when Moreno was one of four owners who voted against raising the luxury tax threshold to $220 million.
All of these problems stem from the fact that Moreno is too hands-on, and does not let his baseball operations make baseball decisions. Most of the marquee signings the Angels have had in the last dozen years were Moreno’s doing.
Moreno even nixed a trade with the Dodgers where the Angels would be giving up utility man Luis Rengifo and a prospect for starting pitcher Ross Stripling and outfielder Joc Pederson. Moreno grew impatient that the trade was taking too long to complete so he fully canceled the deal. Another move that raised frustration levels from the fanbase.
After all, Arte Moreno is a businessman, not a baseball man.
Needless to say, the majority of Angels fans were ecstatic to hear that Moreno was selling the team and crushed when he announced that he changed his mind.
So what happens now?
With Moreno coming back I am sure things are going to be the same as they were before. The biggest question that the baseball world has been wondering is if Shohei Ohtani will sign an extension with the Angels or does he want out. If Ohtani wants out, do the Angels trade him so they at least get something in return for losing a once-in-a-generation type player?
As much as I think that trading Ohtani is the right thing to do, I highly doubt that Moreno would give it the okay since Ohtani is one of Moreno’s top revenue-getters.
It is hard to imagine that Ohtani would want to stay with the Angels since he has made it clear that he wants to win and Moreno’s track record proves that winning in Anaheim does not seem likely in the near future.
Unless Moreno breaks open the safe and offers Ohtani a massive extension that he just cannot refuse, I think this is Ohtani’s last season in Anaheim.
Moreno is 76 years old so who knows how much longer he will want to own the Angels, but until he sells, the Angels will always be the same.
Jack Writes 
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