The Los Angeles Angels finally have a new owner, and after the Arte Moreno era, that alone feels like a major reset.
Moreno’s run was supposed to be defined by ambition. He bought a World Series winner in 2003 and, for a while, he spent like someone determined to keep it rolling.
But as the years went on, the franchise drifted into a mess of interference, waste and self-inflicted damage. Sam Blum and Andy McCullough of The Athletic laid out just how far things went off the rails, and the picture is ugly.
The biggest on-field blunder may be the Shohei Ohtani saga. According to the report, there was a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays that would have sent Junior Caminero and Carson Williams to the Angels, and another with the San Diego Padres that would have brought Jackson Merrill and other prospects.
Neither move happened. Ohtani wound up with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Angels lost the chance to reshape their future.
That kind of miss fit into a larger problem: a front office that could not operate freely. Blum and McCullough described a “culture of frustration and desperation,” and both Billy Eppler and Perry Minasian, Moreno’s last two general managers, felt constrained by the owner’s involvement.
One example cited in the report involved a potential trade that would have brought Joc Pederson, Ross Stripling and Andy Pages to the Angels for Luis Rengifo. Moreno killed it, and then, when asked about it, said, “I just would rather not talk about it.”
The money side of the story was just as bleak. Moreno once had a reputation for opening the checkbook, but the results turned sour fast.
The Athletic noted that from 2022-25, the Angels were the only team with an average payroll above $200 million and a winning percentage below .450. The bad contracts tell the story, too: Albert Pujols at $245 million for ten years, Anthony Rendon at seven years for $245 million.
And then there’s the part that goes beyond wins and losses. The report paints a picture of an organization that treated people poorly. The Skaggs trial sits at the center of that, exposing a corrupt setup in which former players were disparaged, drugs were supplied by team employees like imprisoned PR flack Eric Kay, and darker things were still unknown.
Other details are almost absurd if they weren’t so revealing. Players were lifting weights in the parking lot at spring training.
Minor leaguers were living in apartments and sleeping on mattresses while begging for help. The team was not keeping up with modern analytics equipment.
Radio broadcasters were not flown with the club. And members of the 2002 championship team were told to pay their own way to a team reunion.
That’s the legacy Moreno leaves behind: not just losses, but a franchise worn down from the inside.
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The result was only the Angels second win in 12 games, so it mattered beyond one night in the standings. Bryan Reynolds provided Pittsburghs lone damage with a solo homer, but the bigger takeaway for Los Angeles was simpler: Kikuchi looked like a starter capable of carrying a game, and for a club needing any kind of lift, that is a welcome development. [Read more 🡒]