OC Register: Angels owner Arte Moreno has sights set on contending in 2025

[AngelsWin.com]

Facing the offseason after a franchise-record 99 losses, Arte Moreno had specific instructions for general manager Perry Minasian.

“We have a plan to try to add players that are going to help us compete,” the Angels owner said. “Perry’s marching orders are we need to build a team that can compete for a playoff spot. When you get to playoffs, anything can happen.”

Moreno added that this is not a long-term plan.

“In 2025,” he said.

Moreno spoke by phone Saturday to the Southern California News Group on a wide range of topics in his first interview since spring training.

Moreno, who has owned the team since 2003, oversaw a period of success in his first decade, but has seen the Angels become a disappointment for much of the time since. The Angels haven’t made the playoffs since 2014 – the longest drought in the sport – and they haven’t had a winning season since 2015. Moreno has often come under fire for his decisions that led to the losing seasons.

Even though his critics grew even louder during this nightmare season, Moreno nonetheless has an optimistic view of where the franchise is headed. He’s encouraged by the progress of the young players, and he’s committed to supporting them with an increased payroll.

“It’s going to go up,” Moreno said.

This season the Angels slashed about $40 million from the 2023 payroll, which nearly exceeded the luxury-tax threshold. Most of that was having Shohei Ohtani’s $30 million salary come off the books. Moreno said the Angels would be spending more in 2025 than they did in 2024, although not as much as they did in 2023.

“We won’t go there again,” Moreno said. “It’s just an automatic loss. If I start piling up (financial) losses, then the next year I’m going to cut.”

While there are different ways to measure a team’s payroll, the Angels have consistently been above average, but not one of the top spending teams. Moreno seems content to keep the Angels below the level of the sport’s biggest spenders.

“The teams that are spending the money they’re spending, they’re losing a lot of money,” Moreno said. “Not a little bit of money. They’re losing a lot of money. And some teams are selling equity to keep their payroll up.”

After losing Ohtani last winter, the Angels mostly sat out the free-agent market. Their biggest deal was a three-year, $33-million contract with right-handed reliever Robert Stephenson.

Moreno said as they got into spring training they made a run at J.D. Martinez before he signed with the New York Mets.

Moreno said the Angels offered Martinez a one-year deal worth “somewhere around $12 million, nothing deferred.” Martinez signed a deal with the Mets that paid him $12 million, but he received only $4.5 million in 2024, and the rest was deferred, some until 2038.

“We thought he was coming,” Moreno said. “We thought he would really fit well into our DH.”

Without Martinez, and with Stephenson, Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon missing all or most of the season with injuries, the Angels were essentially a low payroll team.

The result was the most losses in franchise history.

“I hate to say it’s a terrible year because we had so much growth with our young people,” Moreno said, “but from wins and losses, it was a terrible year. Obviously, the worst year.”

Moreno nonetheless rewarded Minasian with two-year contract extension. He said he appreciates the “communication” with Minasian and manager Ron Washington. Moreno said he and Minasian talk “every day.”

Moreno said his satisfaction with Minasian is largely because of what he perceives to be a strong young core.

“I feel we had a lot of growth with our young players,” he said. “We are really showing a lot more talent available going forward than we have for quite a few years. We’ve been trying to patch holes with free agents, and it has been working. It hasn’t worked in the way we want.”

Although various publications have consistently ranked the Angels’ farm system as one of the worst in the majors, Moreno disagrees with that assessment.

“Look at a roster and see how many homegrown players we have playing for us,” Moreno said. “When people look at our system, they say, ‘Oh geez, they’ve got a low-rated system.’ Why do we continue to produce major-league players? We need to find the mix of players that are going to win. We have to win. At the end of the day. It’s all measured in wins and losses.”

To that end, Moreno said he wants to “supplement” the young core.

“We have make sure we’re deep enough,” Moreno said. “We have to make sure our bench is deep enough if somebody gets hurt. It’s a little bit hard to be in a situation where there’s $72-73 million and they give us no production. It’s hard for me to just sit here and tell you, honestly, that I’m going to put $73 million more money on this payroll next year.”

That figure is a reference to the combined salaries of Trout and Rendon, who have been hurt for much of the past four seasons.

Although Moreno doesn’t seem willing to crank up the payroll to that degree, he said he wants to win again in 2025, with some additions and the current young players.

“That’s our goal,” he said. “We’re looking at ’25-’26, because of the young people coming, but our goal is to be in the playoffs in ’25.”

Among off the field topics, Moreno, 78, reiterated that he has no immediate plans to sell the team, echoing his stance from spring training.

He put the team on the market for a few months in 2022, but then reversed course early in 2023.

“I can’t tell you about the future,” Moreno said. “If someone makes some stupid, crazy offer, I’ve got to do what’s best for the family. I do the best I can to run it as a business.”

Moreno also said there is no current plan to revisit the ballpark development deal with the city. In 2022, Moreno had agreed with the city of Anaheim on a deal to purchase the ballpark and develop the surrounding area. The deal was killed when former mayor Harry Sidhu became embroiled in a corruption scandal.

“I’m not telling you we don’t have plans to revisit it, but I just felt there had to be a cooling period,” Moreno said. “They’re the ones that shot me down. It wasn’t like I did something. The mayor did something.”

Asked how long the “cooling period” would last, Moreno said: “I have no idea. There’s a new mayor (Ashleigh Aitken) and a new thought process.”

Moreno also said he wasn’t expecting any significant impact on the team or the fans from the bankruptcy proceedings involving Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of Bally Sports West.

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The Angels are currently “in talks to restructure” the deal, a source said earlier this week. Moreno conceded that “there’s a possibility that (the revenue from the deal) may be a little lower,” but he said it wouldn’t have a significant impact on the way the team is operated or the payroll.

He also said, as the sports TV landscape shifts more toward streaming than traditional broadcasts, he wants to make sure the games are accessible for a reasonable cost.

“I don’t want to get in a situation where in order to get all the games (fans) have to pay so much more,” Moreno said. “I don’t want to do that. I want to make sure all our opportunities are affordable.”

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[Ochocinco!]

As sh*tty as Arte is, he’s kept payroll in the top 5-10 in the majors for just about his entire tenure. Looks like he wanted one year to reset the payroll and is now willing get back to business spending wise. I fking knew we were in on JD Martinez… it just made too much sense, a shame he picked the Mets but it turned out well for him I probably wouldn’t have come here either. 

[ScottM]

Quote

Moreno said the Angels would be spending more in 2025 than they did in 2024, although not as much as they did in 2023.

“We won’t go there again,” Moreno said. “It’s just an automatic loss. If I start piling up (financial) losses, then the next year I’m going to cut.”

So we’re spending about 20-30M. Not sure how that builds you a contender from what we saw this year. 

[Ochocinco!]

That’s assuming we go into next season with the exact same roster as this year plus arb raises. It’s very possible if not likely we cut some payroll before we start looking to add this off-season. Ex we could cut ties with Canning, Suarez, Sandoval, Ward (Not likely or necessary). 

[angelsnationtalk]

For a second I thought he was going all in for 2025 and then selling after until i saw this...
"Moreno said the Angels would be spending more in 2025 than they did in 2024, although not as much as they did in 2023"

So once again, we're going to bank on Rendon and Trout being healthy. This dude is delusional to wants to be in the playoffs next year. 

That conversation starts with making a run at Soto, Burnes and trading for others which won't happen at all. 

[Ochocinco!]

5 minutes ago, angelsnationtalk said:

For a second I thought he was going all in for 2025 and then selling after until i saw this...
"Moreno said the Angels would be spending more in 2025 than they did in 2024, although not as much as they did in 2023"

So once again, we're going to bank on Rendon and Trout being healthy. This dude is delusional to wants to be in the playoffs next year. 

That conversation starts with making a run at Soto, Burnes and trading for others which won't happen at all. 

Where does he say he’s banking on those two being healthy? 

 

41 minutes ago, AngelsWin.com said:

We have make sure we’re deep enough,” Moreno said. “We have to make sure our bench is deep enough if somebody gets hurt. It’s a little bit hard to be in a situation where there’s $72-73 million and they give us no production. It’s hard for me to just sit here and tell you, honestly, that I’m going to put $73 million more money on this payroll next year.”

Seems to me he’s very clearly trying to prepare the payroll and roster to be ready for Trout and Rendon to not be healthy 

[aznhockeyguy]

Cheap words.  There's too many holes on the roster that can't be fixed over one offseason unless he spends like a drunken sailor and signs every major free agent this offseason. 

[Erstad Grit]

So are these the takeaways? 

1. Not selling

2. Spending 20-30 this offseason
3. F%&K

[Angels 1961]

We love you Arte and I'm sorry if I said anything negative about you. How soon can I send in my money for season seats. The fire in my belly is and always be there for my halos. I cannot wait for Rodger Lodge show on Monday and talk Angel baseball. I hope Lorenzen is on the top of list for F/A signings. LET'S GO ANGELS and YES WE CAN. If you have any left-over Ohtani shirts, send me one. See you and RW at the AARP meeting next week.

[UndertheHalo]

<jerk off motion> 

even the wilpon Mets got to the World Series.  Eventually the angels will get around to being decent.  Thats not the issue. 

[tdawg87]

[BTH]

3 hours ago, AngelsWin.com said:

“We have make sure we’re deep enough,” Moreno said. “We have to make sure our bench is deep enough if somebody gets hurt. It’s a little bit hard to be in a situation where there’s $72-73 million and they give us no production. It’s hard for me to just sit here and tell you, honestly, that I’m going to put $73 million more money on this payroll next year.”

Perry ain’t the only one fed up with them.

[Kendo36]

Depressing 

[ArkyAngelsFan]

Was Ohtani making $30 mil in his last year with the Angels? Was that from his original contract or did he get it thru arbitration?

 

~ArkyAngelsFan~

[redoctober2002]

11 minutes ago, ArkyAngelsFan said:

Was Ohtani making $30 mil in his last year with the Angels? Was that from his original contract or did he get it thru arbitration?

 

~ArkyAngelsFan~

Yep $30M. It was a one year deal to avoid arbitration.

[Vlad27Trout27]

It seems like Arte Moreno isn’t too happy with Trout and Rendon missing time and wasting his money. I doubt he’ll go for any big moves, but it'll be interesting to see how much they spend. I think he’ll push the payroll to around $180-190 million, which makes it surprising if they offer contracts to some of the arbitration players like Suarez, Canning, and Sandoval. Either way, that’s a $30-40 million increase. Honestly, I think they need to set aside at least $30 million for pitching and $10 + million for a bat.

[BTH]

8 hours ago, AngelsWin.com said:

Moreno said the Angels would be spending more in 2025 than they did in 2024, although not as much as they did in 2023.

The thing with this is, he was willing to spend even more than whatever the final payroll number in 2023 ended up at. But the collapse overseen by Nevin resulted in them waiving all those players and their salaries (about $6.4M)

So hopefully that number is the upper limit, and not the number it ended up at.

[LaserMcGee]

I hope he's as full of shit about this as he always has been.... Otherwise we're just repeating the last decade. 

[DMVol]

Wash, Rinse and repeat…

[Mark68]

In other words, Arte has the concept of a plan...

[Tank]

10 hours ago, AngelsWin.com said:

“We are really showing a lot more talent available going forward than we have for quite a few years. We’ve been trying to patch holes with free agents, and it has been working. It hasn’t worked in the way we want.”

put it down, arte. put it down. 

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

Man. So lame. 

[TooCool]

Welp. Another year of refusing to go to the Big A then. F*** you Arte.

[Angels 1961]

Arte giving Perry bag of magic beans to sell.

[Stradling]

At the end of the day it’s just talk, fans taking issue with it is funny. I’m totally fine with this because I don’t see them spending on a free agent that will cost them a draft pick nor do I see them trading anything of value to “contend”. If they do those things I’ll be critical at that point.