The Los Angeles Angels‘ current ownership announced that they will be exploring avenues to sell the team.
Owner Arte Moreno has been at the front of the franchise since 2003, just one year after they were crowned World Series champions.
They missed the playoffs that year, but starting in 2004, they entered a run of five playoff berths in six years.
Two of those postseason appearances culminated in ALCS losses: the Angels were competitive.
Since 2010, however, the Angels have gone to the playoffs just once, in 2014.
That’s incredibly disappointing for a franchise that has had a generational talent in Mike Trout for more than a decade, and two-way star Shohei Ohtani since 2018.
The Angels have a reputation of wasting talent and resources, while failing to bring in quality pitching.
It’s blasphemous that Trout has only one postseason appearance, which came in 2014, and a large part of the blame resides with Moreno.
Moreno’s Only Great Move “Was Buying The Team”
MLB insider Jon Heyman took a shot at Moreno in a recent tweet detailing his decision to sell the team.
“Arte Moreno announces he will explore selling the team. His one great move in baseball was buying the team. Has made a few mistakes since then,” Heyman tweeted.
Arte Moreno announces he will explore selling the team. His one great move in baseball was buying the team. Has made a few mistakes since then.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) August 23, 2022
He gave a monstrous contract to Albert Pujols, which turned out to be a disaster.
He failed to make sure his baseball people surrounded Trout (and later Ohtani) with a winning core.
And he swung and missed on several important free agents despite having a good, large city to offer them.
The Angels’ trade record during Moreno’s tenure is also not particularly positive.
We will see if the next owner, whoever he/she is, can turn around the franchise and return to relevancy.
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