The sale is not complete yet, but the end of the Arte Moreno run is finally in sight, and that matters for the Angels in more ways than one. Tuesday’s announcement of a record $4 billion sale to Stan Kroenke, the Rams and Nuggets owner, will eventually close a chapter that began with real ambition and ended with nearly a decade of losing baseball and the longest active playoff drought in the sport.
Moreno leaves behind more than just a thin roster. He also leaves a very clear pattern: the Angels were willing to spend big on outside stars, but almost never on extending the starting pitchers they developed themselves. Kroenke is inheriting that history, and it puts Walbert Ureña squarely in the spotlight.
The numbers on the Angels’ homegrown starter extensions under Moreno tell the story. Jered Weaver was the last one to get a multi-year deal, signing for $85 million in August 2011.
Before that, it was shorter extensions for Ervin Santana and John Lackey. That’s it - three starting pitchers extended in 23 years.
There were plenty of pitchers who at least gave the Angels a reason to think about it, even if not every one would have been a smart bet: Jarrod Washburn, Ramon Ortiz, Joe Saunders, Garrett Richards, Matt Shoemaker, Andrew Heaney, Griffin Canning, Patrick Sandoval, ahem Shohei Ohtani, Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano. Detmers still could be part of that conversation, but the larger point is hard to miss. Too many arms were allowed to drift away.
Ureña feels like the best chance to break that habit.
He wasn’t a top-100 prospect, but he has been one of the few bright spots in a rough season. Through Tuesday, he has thrown 123.1 innings with a 2.85 ERA, 120 strikeouts, 91 hits allowed and a 1.26 WHIP. He opened the year with two relief appearances in March, then went to Triple-A to build back up before becoming a real surprise as a starter.
The stuff gives him something to work with. His sinker and four-seamer both sit close to 98 MPH on average, and his changeup has a 35.7 percent whiff rate and can produce some ugly swings. Scouts had pegged him as a reliever, but he has held up well in the rotation.
That matters even more now that Soriano is gone. Before the deadline, the rotation picture centered on Ureña, Soriano and Detmers, because those three had supplied most of the value there this season. Now it is down to Ureña and Detmers, with both under team control for at least two more years - and Ureña for six.
That kind of control can sometimes tempt a team to wait, especially with the lockout approaching on December 1. But Ureña started from a low place, and his next few seasons are still relatively inexpensive. That makes this a logical time to talk about locking him up before arbitration pushes the price higher.
The Angels also aren’t operating in some impossible financial landscape. Their payroll sits in the bottom of the middle third, which is too low for this market. Looking ahead, only Yusei Kikuchi and Mike Trout are currently on the books for 2027, and Trout is the only player under contract beyond that.
If there is a moment to show that the franchise is done ignoring its own pitching and letting extensions slip away, this is it. Ureña is the kind of homegrown starter the Angels have too often failed to secure. After 14 years of the same old pattern, Kroenke should not inherit Moreno’s excuses - and he definitely shouldn’t make any new ones.
In Other News...
Angels Just Reignited A Painful Debate With Another Trade
The Angels trade-deadline selloff sent Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe to Cleveland, and it did more than thin out the roster for the stretch run. It also reopened an old conversation around how much offensive upside Los Angeles left on the table, especially with Adell now landing in a situation where the Guardians are clearly counting on his bat to help reshape their lineup.
Adells early returns with Cleveland have only sharpened that debate, since he has looked more productive there than he did in Anaheim. For Angels fans, the deal is another reminder of how often the club has had to weigh immediate roster needs against the possibility that a change of scenery might unlock more from a player, and this one figures to linger as the Guardians try to squeeze more offense out of a group that needed a boost. [Read more 🡒]
Angel Fans Can Already See Where This Stadium Saga Could Go
A recent report briefly sent Angels fans down a familiar road of stadium speculation, only for a spokesperson to walk it back and say Stan Kroenkes company is not ready to move forward on a new ballpark right now. Even so, the interest alone was enough to revive the bigger question around Angel Stadium, where every hint of a replacement plan tends to set off thoughts about what could come next for the ballpark and the land around it.
Kroenkes name carries plenty of weight because of how he has handled sports ownership and real estate elsewhere, from SoFi Stadium to Dicks Sporting Goods Park. That history is why even a corrected report still feels notable: it suggests a possible long-term model for the Angels stadium future, but any actual plan remains uncertain and could still be years away from becoming real. [Read more 🡒]
Tarik Skubal Just Put Real Pressure On The Angels This Offseason
Tarik Skubals comments on the Angels new ownership under Stan Kroenke added another layer to an offseason already built around change in Anaheim. The left-hander spoke positively about the direction of the franchise and suggested that a team with fresh leadership could be more appealing to players who once might have looked elsewhere, which is the kind of signal Angels fans have been waiting to hear after years of frustration.
Skubal still stopped well short of saying anything about where he might land when he reaches free agency, and that uncertainty only sharpens the intrigue around his remarks. It is easy enough to hear the praise as genuine optimism, but it also reads like the kind of public reset that can draw attention from more than one suitor, leaving the Angels with hope, pressure and a lot of work still ahead. [Read more 🡒]