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Total whiff: Angels’ owner says winning not a top-five concern

For 15 years, Angels fans have waited for October baseball.Instead, they got this.Speaking to reporters during a recent media session addressing the team’s payroll and broadcast uncertainty, billionaire owner Arte Moreno said:“The No. 1 thing fans want is affordability. They want affordability. They want safety, and they want a good experience when they come to the ballpark. Believe it or not, winning is not in their top 5”Read that again. Winning is not in their top five.

This from an owner whose franchise hasn’t won a playoff game since 2009 and hasn’t even appeared in October since 2014. The Angels have posted losing records in nine of the last 10 seasons.With Mike Trout in his prime. After having Shohei Ohtani in the clubhouse — and losing him.And let’s not forget — Ohtani’s camp said the Angels were given a chance to match the Dodgers’ offer before he signed elsewhere. Moreno declined to match it.Now, Moreno is telling the media that winning isn’t even a top-five consideration.If making a hefty profit without winning was Moreno’s objective, he’s doing just fine for himself. Moreno bought the franchise in 2003 for less than $200 million. Today, Forbes values the Angels at roughly $2.75 billion.

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The asset has grown. The equity has grown. The brand valuation has grown. What hasn’t grown is the win column. In modern baseball, ownership can profit without winning.Meanwhile, the Angels’ once-lucrative local television deal collapsed when Diamond Sports Group filed for bankruptcy, throwing regional broadcast revenues into uncertainty and cutting into one of the franchise’s primary income streams. 

A misfortune, but something an engaged owner would have seen coming and had a plan in place for moving forward.Add to that the recent settlement in the Tyler Skaggs wrongful death case — a tragic episode that exposed organizational failures and resulted in significant legal and reputational costs.These are not isolated setbacks. They are symptoms of instability.The Angels are not operating in a vacuum. 

Drive 30 miles north, and the Dodgers run like a machine built for October (full disclosure: I’m a lifelong Dodgers fan). Ownership alignment. Development pipeline. Depth stacked on depth. They consistently rank top five in payroll and farm system. 

They show a willingness to absorb luxury tax penalties because the cost of irrelevance is worse.They don’t talk about affordability surveys. They talk about championships.They are chasing a third World Series title in a row.That contrast is devastating.The Angels have brought in some big names over the years. They’ve made occasional pushes that suggested that, at least for a moment, Moreno felt a passing inclination to invest some of his personal fortune. But it’s been sporadic.

There’s never been a sustained, disciplined plan tying it together. No consistent development engine. No long-term structure built to contend year after year.Just isolated moves. That’s not how championship organizations are built.That’s what happens when ownership sees an asset to manage rather than a title to chase.And when you look at it through the lens of Moreno’s own words — that winning isn’t even in the top five — the pattern stops looking accidental.If championships aren’t the organizing principle, you don’t build with relentless consistency. You don’t create depth that survives injuries. You don’t construct a roster designed for October.You build something designed to stay respectable. And respectable doesn’t win divisions.Look south of Orange County to San Diego. The Padres project ambition. They have made it to October baseball four of the last six seasons. 

But player development only flourishes inside a culture obsessed with winning. Without that, talent stalls.You don’t rebuild enthusiasm by announcing lowered expectations. You rebuild it by raising them.Instead, Angels fans heard confirmation of the truth: a man who always wanted to own a ballclub — but whose heart isn’t in the game.There is only one solution if the Angels are ever going to resume an upward trajectory toward October baseball and legitimate World Series contention: Arte Moreno must sell the team to an ownership group whose primary objective is winning championships. 

The Angels do have a much-discussed young core, led by Zach Neto, and they’ve invested somewhat in pitching through the draft. That could help. 

Not affordability surveys. Not asset appreciation. Winning.Right now, in Anaheim, winning is optional. And fans can feel it. Just go to a game. You will feel it, too.

Jon Fleischman is a lifelong Dodgers fan and a political analyst. He writes at http://www.SoDoesItMatter.com.

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