The Los Angeles Angels face the unfortunate end of the road on the current season, and although they aren’t completely out of playoff contention, they’ll most likely be on the outside looking in.
Another year of missing the postseason would mark the 13th time since 2009 they’d log an early exit, putting the success of Angels owner Arte Moreno’s tenure as an odd one. His run of failures put him on the verge of selling the franchise last season, but he notably mentioned he wasn’t ready to walk away.
He instead provided general manager Perry Minasian with the financial resources to hand out multi-year contracts, reaffirming his desire to win. But entering the latter parts of the season has highlighted another failed year, this time with an even thinner farm system, and the uncertain future of Shohei Ohtani.
Moreno displaying such up and down behavior as Angels owner has made things difficult, sentiments that are echoed when discussing the future of the team, via Alden Gonzales of ESPN:
“(Arte Moreno’s) a very, very complicated guy,” a longtime business associate said. “My sense is he’s going to hold onto it for at least a couple more years, but I don’t know that anybody really knows.”
The original report is that Moreno didn’t receive a fair offer for the team in 2022, but prior to this season, he revealed some offers were above what the sale of the New York Mets garnered. A huge factor that remains is his willingness to put the team first:
“The big concern is with Arte and not knowing what they’re doing at the top,” a person close to the team said. “Is this a year-by-year thing? Is it five years? That’s the No. 1 concern right there.”
The Angels have to figure out a way to make a solid offer to Ohtani, keeping him paired up with Mike Trout for the foreseeable future. However, a hurdle remains in Moreno’s commitment to win through building a winning culture within his organization.
Perry Minasian wanted Angels to play ‘meaningful games’ late in season
Trading from the cream of their remaining prospect pool to acquire Lucas Giolito, C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk, and others to supplement the current Major League roster was amongst the most aggressive stances around the league.
Minasian figured it was in the best interest of the fans, players, and organization to hit the gas pedal. This all-in approach bypassed an obvious decision of selling-off players to replenish the gap in prospects, but hindsight is everything.
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