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Angels, LHP Tyler Anderson agree to 3-year deal

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The Los Angeles Angels, once again in need of a starting pitcher to slot near the top of their rotation, have agreed to a three-year contract with Tyler Anderson, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

The deal, valued somewhere in the neighborhood of $39 million, was struck hours before Tuesday’s deadline for players to decide whether to accept the qualifying offer. Anderson was given the one-year, $19.65 million qualifying offer by the crosstown Los Angeles Dodgers but instead opted for a multiyear agreement.

The Angels will now lose their second-round pick and the Dodgers will gain a pick after the fourth round in next year’s draft.

Anderson, 32, enjoyed a breakout season with the Dodgers in 2022, making his first All-Star team while going 15-5 with a 2.57 ERA in 178⅔ innings. His changeup was one of the best in the sport, trailing only Sandy Alcantara’s with regard to pitch value.

Angels general manager Perry Minasian now has five starters locked up: Shohei Ohtani, Anderson, Patrick Sandoval, Jose Suarez and Reid Detmers, the last four of whom throw left-handed. But the team will probably continue with a six-man rotation next season, putting them in play for at least another starting pitcher.

The Angels are clouded in uncertainty given the possibility that longtime owner Arte Moreno will sell the team. But Minasian has stressed that he has nonetheless been granted the ability to add players who might help the team return to the postseason. He recently squashed industrywide speculation that he would explore a trade of Ohtani, a free agent after the 2023 season.

Anderson — whose signing comes almost a year to the day after Minasian signed Noah Syndergaard, another starting pitcher tied to a qualifying offer — will be a bargain if he can maintain his success from last season.

He was considered a tier below the likes of Jacob deGrom, Justin Verlander, Carlos Rodon and Kodai Senga on the free agent market but proved to be one of the sport’s most durable and effective starters last season. And he signed for only about $5 million more than what the Houston Astros paid to retain Rafael Montero, a 32-year-old setup reliever who also navigated an up-and-down career before 2022.

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Angels To Sign Tyler Anderson

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3:04pm: It’s a three-year, $39MM deal for Anderson, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets.

3:02pm: The Angels are in agreement on a contract with free-agent lefty Tyler Anderson, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports (Twitter link). Anderson had received a one-year, $19.65MM qualifying offer, but his deal with the Halos means he’s turning that down for a more lucrative pact. Anderson’s contract is a three-year deal worth roughly $40MM, Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds. Anderson is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Anderson, 33 in December, turned in a career-best season with the Dodgers in 2022, pitching to a 2.57 ERA in a career-high 178 2/3 innings. Along the way, he punched out 19.5% of his opponents against a 4.8% walk rate and 40.1% ground-ball rate.

A former first-round pick of the Rockies (No. 20 overall, in 2011), Anderson showed promise as a rookie in 2016 (3.54 ERA in 114 1/3 innings) before beginning to struggle at Coors Field and eventually incurring a fairly serious knee injury that derailed some of his prime years. Anderson was diagnosed with a chondral defect in the cartilage of his left knee, which sidelined him for the better part of a year and led to the end of his tenure with the Rockies.

Since leaving Colorado, Anderson’s climb back to big league relevance has been impressive, to say the least. Signed to a one-year, make-good deal by the Giants heading into 2020, Anderson did just that in the Covid-shortened season. A 4.37 ERA in 11 starts/13 total appearances wasn’t exactly eye-popping, but it earned him another big league deal with the Pirates the following season. Both the Phillies and Mariners went hard after Anderson at the ’21 trade deadline, with the lefty ultimately landing in Seattle. His 31 starts of roughly league-average pitching netted him a late one-year deal with the Dodgers.

As they so frequently do, the Dodgers found a way to coax a new level of performance out of Anderson in 2022. Anderson didn’t overhaul his pitch repertoire but did rely more heavily on his changeup than he has in all but the shortened 2020 season. R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports points out that Anderson also abandoned a changeup grip he’d been using in recent years and went back to an old grip that wound up generating more drop and limiting hard contact more effectively than ever before. Anderson ranked in the 98th percentile of MLB pitchers in terms of average exit velocity and opponents’ hard-hit rate, and he sat in the 95th percentile in terms of opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate.

It’ll now be incumbent upon the Angels to help Anderson sustain the 2022 version of himself even as he pitches into his mid-30s. It’s the first multi-year contract of Anderson’s career, and, more surprising, the first multi-year contract the Angels have given out to a free-agent starting pitcher since signing Joe Blanton ten years and three general managers ago. Owner Arte Moreno has seemingly been averse to multi-year pacts for free agent starters in all but a few special cases — the Halos pursued Gerrit Cole, for instance — and it’ll be Anderson who bucks that trend at a time when Moreno is exploring a potential sale of the franchise. It’s also the second straight winter in which Moreno and general manager Perry Minasian have jumped the market to sign a pitcher who’d received a qualifying offer; the Angels signed Noah Syndergaard to a one-year, $21MM contract last year before his QO decision was formally due.

Anderson will step into a rotation that’s fronted by two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, giving manager Phil Nevin a fourth lefty to follow his ace in the rotation. The Angels’ trio of Patrick Sandoval, Reid Detmers and Jose Suarez enjoyed, in somewhat under-the-radar fashion, a very productive 2022 season.

Adding Anderson gives the Angels a strong quintet on which to lean, and the Halos have a handful of in-house options to round out a six-man rotation if they prefer to get Ohtani an extra day of rest. Righties Chase Silseth, Griffin Canning, Chris Rodriguez, Janson Junk, Touki Toussaint and Davis Daniel are all on the 40-man roster, as are southpaws Tucker Davidson, Jhonathan Diaz and Kenny Rosenberg. That certainly doesn’t preclude further additions, and it’s possible that some of those depth options won’t even last the entire offseason on the 40-man roster.

The annual breakdown of Anderson’s deal isn’t yet known, though presuming for the time being an even distribution, that’ll push the Halos to a projected $173MM for the 2023 season, per Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez. For luxury-tax purposes, the Anderson deal pushes the Angels to a projected $187.5MM.

The Angels opened the 2022 season with a franchise-record $188.6MM payroll, so by signing Anderson they’re already vaulting themselves up to about $15MM from their highwater mark. With several holes to fill around the roster — infield, perhaps corner outfield, bullpen — they’re likely ticketed for what will be a third consecutive season of pushing to a new franchise record.

Because the Dodgers paid the luxury tax in 2022, their compensation for losing Anderson will be a pick between the fourth and fifth rounds of next year’s draft. The Angels, meanwhile, as a team that neither received revenue sharing nor paid the luxury tax, will surrender their second-highest draft selection and see their league-allotted international bonus pool reduced by $500K.



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Jefferies says buy these quality ‘fallen angels’ trading near 10-year valuation lows

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Sports

Ace Shohei Ohtani takes no-hit bid into 8th inning, Los Angeles Angels defeat Oakland Athletics

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani has provided Angels fans with plenty of highlights this season. He almost topped them all Thursday night.

Ohtani, the Angels’ two-way phenom and the reigning AL MVP, pitched no-hit ball into the eighth inning and extended his hitting streak to 14 games as Los Angeles pushed its winning streak to four with a 4-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

“Every time he takes the mound, you can anticipate something special happening,” Angels interim manager Phil Nevin said. “He had everything working. When he got through the seventh, I thought it was going to happen. Unfortunately, we’ll wait until next time.”

Ohtani said through interpreter Ippei Mizuhara that he was surprised he got through eight innings. He said he wasn’t happy with his fastball and went with more breaking balls than normal.

“To be honest, the velocity on my fastball wasn’t as fast as normal,” he said. “But my slider was doing its thing and was working. I’m kind of surprised with my stuff today.”

Ohtani allowed two hits and struck out 10 in eight scoreless innings to match his longest outing of the season.

In his final home start of the year, Ohtani (15-8) issued a leadoff walk to Tony Kemp before retiring the next 22 batters in order. Conner Capel broke up the no-hit bid with a sharp grounder that deflected off sliding shortstop Livan Soto’s glove and into left-center field with two outs in the eighth.

Even if Soto had been able to field it, he would have had trouble throwing out Capel.

Dermis Garcia followed with a clean single to left before Ohtani retired Shea Langeliers on a grounder to third to end the inning.

“It was going to take a special at-bat, and Conner stayed on a ball away and put a good swing on it,” Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said. “There’s always that exhale, and then Garcia gets ahead and we get some momentum.”

Ohtani ran his hitting streak to 14 games — the longest current streak in the majors — by going 2-for-4 with an RBI. He has 26 hits this season in games he also pitched.

After winning the American League MVP award last season, Ohtani is a leading contender again this year — probably the top challenger to New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who hit his 61st home run Wednesday night to match the AL record set by Roger Maris in 1961.

“I feel like you guys are more of an expert on the voting. I’ll leave it up to you guys,” Ohtani said of the MVP race. “I enjoy watching Judge and saw him hit his 61st.”

Ohtani is at 161 innings pitched, one inning shy of assuring he will qualify among the league leaders when the season ends. Ohtani is likely to pitch in the season finale at Oakland next Wednesday so he does.

On the mound, Ohtani’s 15 victories are tied for third in the AL, his 213 strikeouts are third and 2.35 ERA is fourth. At the plate, he is fourth in the league with 34 home runs and sixth with 94 RBIs.

“I know I got MVP last year, but I’m having a better season this year, which is just leading to a lot more confidence,” he said.

Ohtani had a perfect game through 5⅓ innings at Houston on April 20 before Jason Castro lined a single to left field in the sixth. It was Houston’s only hit in the game.

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Sports

Shohei Ohtani pitches gem in Angels’ walk-off win

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ANAHEIM — Somehow, Shohei Ohtani keeps managing to ascend to new heights.

Brandishing the new sinker he recently started incorporating, the two-way star looked as dominant as ever on Saturday night at Angel Stadium, throwing eight innings of one-run ball in the Angels’ 2-1 win over the Astros in 12 innings. In the process, Ohtani reached 400 career Major League strikeouts while also setting a career high in MLB innings pitched with 136 (surpassing his total of 130 1/3 in 2021).

Ohtani’s 403 strikeouts across parts of four Major League seasons are in addition to the 624 he recorded during his five seasons in NPB.

“He was incredible,” interim manager Phil Nevin said. “For me, it was probably his best outing of the year, just considering where we were, the way the game was going. Even the run was a soft contact. He was really good. Really, really good.”

That sinker was a big part of Ohtani’s success against the team with the best record in the American League. After throwing it 13 times in his previous two starts combined, he threw it 18 times on Saturday. It was working for him in a way it had not before, with Ohtani himself describing the pitch as “nasty.”

“I mean, you can see it,” said Nevin. “It’s got 17-18 inches of run across the plate, and it’s still at 98-99 miles an hour. That’s a pretty tough pitch to handle for any hitter, [and] certainly as a right-handed hitter.”

“I felt really good about it, for the most part,” said Ohtani. “Gave up a couple hits, but I was able to locate it where I wanted to and I was able to throw a lot of them, so that was really good.”

The sole blemish on Ohtani’s line came in the top of the fifth, when Trey Mancini hit a two-out double and scored on a base hit by J.J. Matijevic. But after working out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth and throwing a clean top of the seventh, Ohtani had enough in the tank to go back out for the eighth inning. For the second time this season and fourth time in his career, he made it through eight, working around Jose Altuve’s one-out double to keep the game tied at 1.

The 111 pitches were a season high for the right-hander, who lowered his ERA to 2.58, which ranks fifth among qualified American League starters.

“You can see it on his face sometimes when it’s another level on top of the level that he gets to already,” said Nevin. “I mean, you saw him get up over 100 miles an hour there in the seventh and eighth, so he certainly can reach back and has that gear.”

This comes on the heels of Ohtani becoming the first player in AL/NL history to hit 30 or more home runs in a season while also winning 10 or more games, which he accomplished on Wednesday. His five strikeouts on Saturday brought his total on the season to 181; with 19 more, he will also be the first player in AL/NL history with 200 strikeouts as a pitcher and 30 home runs as a hitter.

He has thrown more than 136 innings in a season in Japan, but with a few more starts he could set an all-around personal high.

The Angels only cobbled together one run during the first nine innings, with Luis Rengifo scoring on Ryan Aguilar’s sacrifice fly in the seventh for Aguilar’s first career RBI. But José Quijada, Jimmy Herget and Ryan Tepera combined for four scoreless innings, setting the stage for Matt Duffy’s walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th on a ball that bounced before hitting the glove of diving center fielder Mauricio Dubón.

It was Duffy’s first career walk-off with the Angels, which was made extra sweet by the fact that it salvaged Ohtani’s stellar start. Duffy even took the opportunity to weigh in on the heated Ohtani-vs.-Aaron Judge AL MVP debate.

“People were talking about Judge for MVP, and I’m just like, he’s got to break [Roger] Maris’ record to even be in the conversation for me,” said Duffy. “Some people might think that’s ridiculous in New York, I’m sure. But [Ohtani] does it on both sides of the ball.

“… I mean, it’s insane. There really are no words for it. And there’s a reason why nobody’s done it since Babe Ruth, I guess. But how exceptional he is on two sides of the ball, it’s just, you run out of words, because there are none.”

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Sports

Aaron Judge history spoiled by Shohei Ohtani as Yankees fall to Angels

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Aaron Judge made history on Monday night, becoming just the third Yankee to reach the 50-homer milestone multiple times in his career. 

But it was his main challenger for AL MVP — Shohei Ohtani — who had the biggest blast of the night, as Ohtani’s two-run homer in the fifth put the Angels ahead for good in their 4-3 win at Angel Stadium. 

Josh Donaldson’s pinch-hit single with two outs in the ninth gave the Yankees some life before Oswaldo Cabrera flied out to deep center to end it. 

It sent the Yankees to their third straight loss after a five-game winning streak that now seems a distant memory. 

“I don’t get caught up in individual numbers, good or bad,’’ Judge said. “It’s great, but I’m kind of upset about the loss. We’ll talk about how this feels once the season is over.” 

Asked what he’ll remember about the momentous night, Judge said, “I’ll be thinking about a 4-3 loss we had in Anaheim. I wish it could have been a little sweeter with a victory.” 

Shohei Ohtani hits a two-run homer in the fifth inning.
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Part of the reason it wasn’t was that Frankie Montas gave up three homers — tied for a career high — and for a fourth consecutive game, the Yankees couldn’t score more than three runs. 

It left the Yankees seven games ahead of the second-place Rays in the AL East, which is as small as their lead has been in the division since June 5. 

But Judge’s teammates and Aaron Boone marveled at the outfielder’s latest accomplishment. 

“It’s 50 [homers] and it’s August,’’ Boone said. “It’s hard to wrap your mind around just what an incredible season he’s having. … The one time they pitched to him tonight he hit it off the rocks [in center field].’’ 

Montas entered with a 1.20 ERA in five starts in Anaheim, his best mark at any ballpark, but that previous success didn’t carry over. Against an Angels team that just swept Toronto after losing nine of its previous 10 games, Montas gave up a leadoff homer to Luis Rengifo in the bottom of the second, as the Yankees fell behind, 1-0. 

Frankie Montas pitches on Monday during the Yankees’ loss to the Angels.
AP

After left-hander Jose Suarez retired the first seven batters of the game, Isiah Kiner-Falefa walked and Cabrera singled down the right-field line to put runners on the corners for the Yankees. 

DJ LeMahieu, one of many slumping Yankees, then laid down a safety-squeeze bunt to score Kiner-Falefa. It was another indication of how bad the Yankee offense has been, that they bunted with their leadoff hitter. 

Judge was walked intentionally before Andrew Benintendi grounded out to end the inning. 

Aaron Judge hit his 50th home run Monday night.
AP

The Yankees went ahead with Rizzo’s two-out solo shot to right in the fourth. It was Rizzo’s first homer since Aug. 17 and just his second since Aug. 2. 

Former Yankee Mike Ford answered with his first homer of the season with one out in the bottom of the inning. 

Kiner-Falefa opened the fourth with a double to left-center, but Cabrera struck out and LeMahieu grounded to third, keeping Kiner-Falefa at second. Judge was walked intentionally for a second time and Benintendi flied to right. 

Shohei Ohtani, left, celebrates after his home run.
USA TODAY Sports

Ohtani’s blast to right-center gave the Angels a two-run lead. It was Ohtani’s 29th homer of the season. 

Judge got the Yankees back to within a run, but Suarez — who gave up just two runs in six innings — and the Angels’ bullpen did enough to keep the struggling Yankee offense down. 

Gleyber Torres went hitless again and made a careless mistake in the bottom of the seventh, when he failed to touch second base on what should have been an inning-ending double play. 

And Montas, the team’s consolation prize when it couldn’t land top target Luis Castillo, now has a 7.01 ERA in five starts as a Yankee.

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Sports

Latest On Angels’ Potential Sale

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The Angels appear set for a major shake-up, as owner Arte Moreno announced Tuesday he’d retained financial advisors to explore a potential sale of the franchise. The news came as a surprise publicly, but Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reports that Moreno had planned to look into selling the team for a while before making the announcement. One source tells Rosenthal a sale has been under consideration for upwards of two months.

Precisely when Moreno settled upon this course of action isn’t clear, but it appears to have been at some point in June at the latest. As Rosenthal points out, that provides some interesting context for the Halos’ approach to the trade deadline — specifically with the organization’s handling of reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani. Reports emerged in late July the Angels were listening to trade offers on Ohtani, but any speculation was quickly dashed when the Halos took the two-way star off the market by August 1.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported shortly after the deadline that Moreno forbade the front office from exploring Ohtani trades at a time when fellow superstar Mike Trout was on the injured list. Buster Olney of ESPN relayed a similar sentiment this week, writing that the club’s baseball operations department viewed this summer as the ideal time to extract a maximum return for Ohtani, who is arbitration-eligible for a final time before reaching free agency after 2023. Moreno, however, stepped in and indicated he wouldn’t approve a trade.

In the aftermath of the announcement that Moreno was exploring a sale, there was plenty of speculation among rival fanbases that an Ohtani trade next offseason could be more viable than it was this summer. Yet Rosenthal feels that’s unlikely, reasoning that Moreno’s refusal to deal Ohtani at the deadline while already planning to explore a sale of the franchise seems unlikely to change over the winter.

It isn’t known how long the sales process will take, but it could extend well into the offseason. For reference, the Lerner family announced shortly after Opening Day they were exploring a sale of the Nationals. Earlier this week, Barry Svrulga, Ben Strauss and Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post suggested that process could be wrapped up by November, around seven months after the team’s announcement a sale was under consideration. If the Angels’ process follows a similar timetable, it’d push near Opening Day 2023. Each situation is individual, of course, and one can’t know precisely at this stage how long the possible sale of the Anaheim franchise might take. Yet the Nationals situation serves as an example of the complexity of a deal of this magnitude, and it seems likely Moreno will retain ownership at least for the early stages of the offseason.

Ohtani’s future is just one of many key decisions the Angels face as the franchise prepares for a possible monumental change. The club will have to settle upon a manager, with Phil Nevin currently holding the role on an interim basis after the team dismissed Joe Maddon in early June. General manager Perry Minasian and his staff will also be tasked with trying to overcome what’s set to be a seventh straight losing season and presumably make another push for contention in 2023. How much financial flexibility will be at the front office’s disposal remains to be seen.

The Halos entered this season with a franchise-record payroll north of $188MM, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Jason Martinez of Roster Recourse estimates the club has a bit above $103MM in guaranteed money on the books for next season. That doesn’t include what’ll surely be a massive raise for Ohtani over this season’s $5.5MM salary, and the team will also see first baseman Jared Walsh reach arbitration for the first time. The Halos aren’t facing many significant free agent departures, but they could arguably stand to use external help at shortstop, left field, catcher and in both the rotation and the bullpen.

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Angels owner Arte Moreno exploring potential sale: What it would mean for the Halos and Shohei Ohtani

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Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno announced Tuesday he has begun a formal process to “evaluate strategic alternatives including a possible sale of the team.” Moreno purchased the Angels from Disney for $180 million in May 2003, a few months after the franchise won its only World Series championship. 

Here is Moreno’s statement on a potential sale:

“It has been a great honor and privilege to own the Angels for 20 seasons. As an Organization, we have worked to provide our fans an affordable and family-friendly ballpark experience while fielding competitive lineups which included some of the game’s all-time greatest players.”

“Although this difficult decision was entirely our choice and deserved a great deal of thoughtful consideration, my family and I have ultimately come to the conclusion that now is the time. Throughout this process, we will continue to run the franchise in the best interest of our fans, employees, players, and business partners.” 

This news comes three months after the Anaheim City Council voided a $320 million deal to sell the 153-acre Angel Stadium property to Moreno, who would have then developed the real estate. The deal was negotiated illegally and the City Council paid a $96 million fine following a FBI corruption probe into former mayor Harry Sidhu. Sidhu resigned shortly thereafter.

Moreno, 76, is MLB’s only non-white principal owner. He will leave behind a complicated legacy, one in which he consistently spent money on the big-league team but too often meddled in the day-to-day operations, and reportedly went over the front office’s head to broker several large free-agent contracts. The Angels were among the first teams to furlough employees during the pandemic shutdown in 2020, and Moreno pushed to cancel that year’s amateur draft as a cost-cutting move.

The Angels have not been to the postseason since 2014 and they have not won a postseason game since 2009. With the caveat that a lot can change between now and a sale, the next Angels owner will inherit a team with several pricey long-term contracts. Also, the Angels are currently being sued by the family of former pitcher Tyler Skaggs following his drug-related death in 2019.

Here are three things to know about the fallout stemming from the news Moreno is exploring a sale of the Angels.

Ohtani’s future is even cloudier

When a team is put up for sale, it creates a whole lot of uncertainty. Will the new owner come in and pump money into the roster in an effort to contend like Steve Cohen with the Mets? Or will he authorize a tear down and a rebuild? The argument can be made the Angels need a rebuild. Then again, new owners typically like to come in and make a splash.

Shohei Ohtani, the reigning AL MVP, is scheduled to become a free agent after next season. He has indicated his top priority is winning, and the Angels are not doing that. Can a new owner come in and convince Ohtani to sign long-term? Sure. Could a new owner come in and realize trading Ohtani, while painful, is the best path forward? Also sure.

It should be noted an Ohtani trade would be extremely unpopular with the Angels fanbase, in which case prospective owners may want Moreno’s regime to make that trade, allowing them to can come in and be the good guys. The Nationals, who are also for sale, essentially followed that blueprint with Juan Soto. The current owner ripped off the band-aid. The new owner gets a clean slate. 

A new owner would also create uncertainty about Mike Trout’s future. Now 31, Trout is signed through 2030 at huge dollars, and injuries have become more frequent in recent years. Trout has full no-trade protection and controls his own destiny. The question is whether a new owner would keep Trout and build around him, or try to sell him on the idea of a fresh start elsewhere.

Two MLB teams will be up for sale

As noted, the Nationals are up for sale as well. A legal battle among the Angelos family has led to speculation the Orioles could be sold too. The Nationals most definitely are for sale, however, complicating things for both Washington and the Angels. Neither is the only team up for sale now, meaning they’ll compete for the same potential owners.

Cohen purchased the Mets for roughly $2.4 billion in Nov. 2020. The Royals were sold to John Sherman for $1 billion in 2019, and the Marlins were sold to Bruce Sherman for $1.2 billion in 2017. As a large -market team in Southern California, the Angels figure to fetch a price much closer to what the Mets sold for rather than the Royals and Marlins.

A new ballpark could be on the way

Moreno has been trying to secure a new ballpark for several years and the new owner will presumably pick up the torch. Angel Stadium is the fourth oldest ballpark in the big leagues behind Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Dodger Stadium, and the team’s lease runs through 2029. So, a new ballpark is not a pressing matter the way it is for, say, the Athletics, but it is certain to be a top priority for the next owner.

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An Angels sale could increase chances of Shohei Ohtani trade; these five teams are best positioned to land him

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The Los Angeles Angels announced Tuesday that owner Arte Moreno has initiated a formal process to evaluate “strategic alternatives” involving the franchise, including a potential sale. Moreno, who has owned the Angels since buying the franchise from Disney in 2003 at the cost of $184 million, said the following as part of his statement:

“Although this difficult decision was entirely our choice and deserved a great deal of thoughtful consideration, my family and I have ultimately come to the conclusion that now is the time. Throughout this process, we will continue to run the franchise in the best interest of our fans, employees, players, and business partners.” 

If Moreno’s process does result in a sale, that development will have major repercussions throughout the league, in no small part because it could clear the way for a Shohei Ohtani trade. As CBS Sports reported last month, rival front offices believe that the biggest hurdle to an Ohtani trade would be getting Moreno to sign off on it; if he’s out of the picture, the odds of an offseason deal would increase.

It’s fair to wonder why an incoming owner would be OK trading one of the best players in baseball, but the situation is comparable to what the Washington Nationals faced this past deadline with Juan Soto. Ohtani, 28, is a year away from free agency, at which point he’s certain to demand a massive contract. The new owner will already have several large obligations on the books, including those given to Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, and will likely have to leverage themselves financially in order to complete the purchase. As a result, they may shy away from another big contract — especially if they take a realistic view of where the Angels stand, competitively. 

The last point is crucial because Ohtani — a two-way sensation and the reigning AL MVP — has a say in where he’ll play after next season. He’s publicly stated that his top priority is to win games, making it possible — if not downright probable — that the Angels are far down on his list of preferred suitors.

Let’s say that the next Angels owner accepts that reality, and that Ohtani is placed on the block this offseason. Just which teams are best positioned to land him in a trade? Here are five that jump to mind, presented below in perceived order of likelihood.

The Dodgers have been enamored with Ohtani dating back to when they tried to sign him out of high school. He chose to play professionally in Japan instead, but it’s unlikely the Dodgers harbor any ill will about his decision. Top executive Andrew Friedman is no stranger to making blockbuster trades, and his best-in-show player development apparatus has once again armed him with a warchest of top youngsters to offer to the Angels. The Dodgers could dangle some combination of catcher Diego Cartaya; righties Bobby Miller, Ryan Pepiot, and Gavin Stone; and infielders Miguel Vargas and Michael Busch. The one potential snag in a Dodgers pursuit is if the Angels elect against moving Ohtani to their biggest geographical rival.

The Mets have a lot of things working in their favor. Owner Steven Cohen has demonstrated time and again that he’s willing to spend big on top talent; general manager Billy Eppler is the same executive who signed Ohtani in the first place; and the Mets have several notable youngsters they could float the Angels’ way. That group includes rookie third baseman Brett Baty and catcher Francisco Álvarez, who is one of the best prospects in the game. The Mets could even include one of their first-round picks from this past summer, be it catcher Kevin Parada or shortstop Jett Williams. Unlike in the Juan Soto talks, there’s no intradivisional weirdness to get in the way. 

Speaking of those Soto talks, it only makes sense to include one of the other finalists. The Cardinals still have two of the top position prospects in the minors, in third baseman/outfielder Jordan Walker and shortstop Masyn Winn, and they have a slew of youngsters who could serve as secondary pieces, including pitchers Cooper Hjerpe, Gordon Graceffo, Matthew Liberatore, and Tink Hence. The Cardinals have shown a willingness to pony up in the past, and if Ohtani is serious about prioritizing winning above all, he could do worse than settling down in St. Louis for the long haul.

The Yankees are tough to get a read on in these situations. They would make sense as a landing spot for Ohtani (then again, so do most teams), but the question is, are they willing to part with the prospects it would require to get a deal done? Although the Yankees did thin their farm-system depth by trading for Frankie Montas (and others) at the deadline, they were able to retain shortstop prospects Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza. Outfielder Jasson Dominguez remains in the system, too, and rumors had New York being amenable to shipping him out in the right trade. Another factor worth considering is how the Aaron Judge talks could impact the Yankees’ long-term financial plans, and their willingness to hand out another massive deal next winter.

There are several other teams who could pop up in Ohtani-related rumors this winter. We’re going to cap our skim of the market with a wild-card team: the Rangers. If owner Ray Davis and general manager Chris Young want to put the Jon Daniels era behind them, they could execute another splash move by adding Ohtani. The Rangers certainly have the prospect means to get a deal done, as they have several notable youngsters in their farm system, such as third baseman Josh Jung; righties Jack Leiter, Owen White, Kumar Rocker, and Brock Porter; and outfielder Evan Carter. It’s possible that the Rangers being in the same division would lower their chances of completing a trade; it’s also possible that Young wants to build from within, and that Davis would prefer to not hand out another big contract, having received mixed results from Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. Still, if the Rangers are serious about making the proverbial leap, then Ohtani should be one of their top targets this winter.

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Arte Moreno Exploring Possible Sale Of Angels

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In a news release, the Angels ownership group announced that it is considering selling the team, and will start to explore a possible sale along with Galatioto Sports Partners (who have been retained as financial advisors during the process).

“It has been a great honor and privilege to own the Angels for 20 seasons,” owner Arte Moreno in the statement.  “As an Organization, we have worked to provide our fans an affordable and family-friendly ballpark experience while fielding competitive lineups which includes some of the game’s all-time greatest players.”

“Although this difficult decision was entirely our choice and deserved a great deal of thoughtful consideration, my family and I have ultimately come to the conclusion that now is the time.  Throughout this process, we will continue to run the franchise in the best interest of our fans, employees, players, and business partners.”

While any number of factors may have weighed into the Moreno family’s thought process, it was less than three months ago that Anaheim’s city council ruled against a long-gestating deal that would have seen Moreno’s management group purchase Angel Stadium and the entire 150-acre property around the ballpark. Moreno’s group was planning to develop the area into a multi-purpose residential and commercial space, similar to other “ballpark village” developments that have become common around both newer baseball stadiums and other venues in other sports.

However, the tentative agreement between Moreno and the city fell apart, in large part due to an ongoing federal investigation concerning alleged corruption, violations of state laws, and insider information.  Former Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu resigned his position, and the city council voted to overturn the Angel Stadium deal entirely in the wake of the scandal.

Though the stadium controversy led to fresh questions about the franchise’s future in Anaheim, it now seems like Moreno himself will be walking away from the Angels entirely.  Moreno originally bought the team in April 2003 for a price of $184MM, taking over operations from the Walt Disney Company in the wake of the Angels’ 2002 World Series championship season.

That 2002 title still stands as the franchise’s lone championship, despite Moreno’s efforts to remake the Angels into a big-spending perpetual contender.  Under Moreno’s stewardship, the Halos have regularly been at least a top-10 payroll team, even if Moreno’s willingness to spend didn’t lead to a willingness to cross the luxury tax threshold.  (2004 was the only season the Angels ever made a luxury tax payment.)

The Angels reached the postseason five times between 2004-09, though they won only two playoff series and didn’t advance beyond the ALCS.  The regular trips to October soon stopped, as an AL West title in 2014 (and a three-game sweep at the hands of the Royals in the ALDS) marked the Angels’ most recent postseason appearance.  After winning 85 games in 2015, Los Angeles has had six consecutive losing seasons, with the struggling 2022 squad on its way to making it seven straight years of sub-.500 baseball.

As Moreno’s statement noted, “some of the game’s all-time greatest players” have worn an Angels uniform in the last 20 seasons, including the likes of Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Vladimir Guerrero, and Shohei Ohtani.  Despite these and other talents, the Angels simply haven’t been able to break through due to a host of other ill-advised acquisitions.  While Moreno was willing to spend, this aggressiveness manifested itself in many major investments that simply didn’t pan out — i.e. Josh Hamilton, Justin Upton, Vernon Wells, Gary Matthews Jr., Zack Cozart, and (to date) Anthony Rendon.

Pujols’ ten-year, $240MM free agent deal is probably the defining transaction of Moreno’s ownership, and unfortunately symbolic of the Angels’ last decade of struggles.  While Pujols was still an elite player heading into the 2012 season, giving such a major contract to a first baseman entering his age-32 season was seen as a risk, and those fears ended up being warranted.  Pujols had a few good seasons in Anaheim, but injuries and the normal aging curve made him far less productive than during his prime years with the Cardinals.

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