The Los Angeles Angels are one of eight teams whose games are broadcast by the Diamond Sports Group, the ownership team behind Bally Sports West. Diamond had already filed for bankruptcy, but recently announced that they are dropping all of their teams except for the Atlanta Braves unless teams want to renegotiate their current contracts.
This affects the Angels, as they are one of the teams that has a current deal but would be dropped if they opted not to renegotiate. The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks took this route, and the distribution of their games is currently handled by MLB itself.
At this stage, it appears as though the Angels would like to stay with Diamond, according to Jeff Fletcher of The O.C. Register:
The Angels are “in talks to restructure” their deal with Diamond Sports Group to continue broadcasting their games on television, a source said on Wednesday.
The Angels are “confident” that fans will not see any disruption in the way they have been receiving the broadcasts, the source said.
The Angels, a source said, are among the teams in talks with Diamond about continuing their partnership under different terms.
This decision could have some implications on the Angels in 2025. It’s unlikely that any new deal struck with Diamond would lead to an increase in revenue for the Halos, meaning by renegotiating they are preparing for some type of decrease.
If that decrease is large enough, that could affect how much owner Arte Moreno is willing to spend on his 2025 roster. The Angels cut their spending by nearly $60 million from 2023 to 2024, but were hoping to see a bump back up with all the talk that they would like to compete for the postseason next year.
If they do ultimately take a massive revenue hit, the only option may be to sit through another rebuilding year to recoup the finances lost.
Perry Minasian: Angels need Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon to be better
The Angels spent $172.2 million on their roster for the 2024 season, according to Spotrac. That was a drastic shift for Minasian and Moreno. The year prior, the Angels spent over $230 million on payroll, but intentionally scaled back after Shohei Ohtani signed with the L.A. Dodgers.
The stark drop-off in payroll was made even more drastic by the fact that Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon played 29 and 57 games respectively, and the latter did not play well in the games he was able to be on the field for. The Angels had $75.7 million, just under 44% of their total payroll, on the injured list for a majority of the season.
So it’s no wonder that Minasian’s Angels lost a franchise record 99 games. And as the GM looks ahead to 2025, he knows the team needs reinforcements. But he also needs the team’s two highest-paid players to be on the field.