3 things that have to happen before the Angels are truly competitive again

The Los Angeles Angels own the largest active playoff drought in the MLB. That's right, longer than historically bad teams like the Chicago White Sox and the Colorado Rockies. Longer than the penny-pinching Pittsburgh Pirates. The longest period.

The Halos, having tasted the postseason since 2014 and coming off back-to-back last-place finishes in the AL West, don't seem like they will change that in 2026. Throughout the drought, a lot of things have gone spectacularly wrong.

The easy scapegoat during this incredible dry spell has been owner Arte Moreno. Moreno's antics have worked every last nerve of Angels fans as the erratic owner can be both heavily involved and incredibly cheap at the same time.

However, the answer isn't necessarily selling the team. It certainly wouldn't hurt, but Moreno's been at the helm since 2003, and during the first half of his stewardship, from his first full year in 2004 through the start of the drought, the Angels had nine winning seasons in 11 years.

Instead, there are other problems, many of them recent, that must be addressed.

Three things the Angels must do in order to return to relevance and become competitive again

1. Fire Perry Minasian

It's incredible that Perry Minasian has been in charge of shaping the club's roster since November of 2020. While he had a challenge ahead of him, he was also gifted a unit that had prime Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani as cornerstones. Now, Trout would begin his injury struggles in force in 2021, and that's not Minasian's fault.

Where the blame lies with Minasian is how little he did to add to those two superstars, and the timidness he displayed since Ohtani's departure. The Angels could've been a prime free-agent destination, but Minasian contributed greatly to the decline.

Recently, his hesitancy to trade veterans with value that weren't in their last year of team control, make anything more than a mid-level move in free-agency, and general hesitancy to act have made the team feel more stuck than in the past. Many of his predecessors took swings. Some, like Anthony Rendon, worked out horribly, but at least they went big. Moreno may have clamped down on him, but a good general manager knows how to handle a meddling owner. That's not Minasian.

2. Fix player development

The Angels have two problems on this front. They don't invest nearly as much as other clubs in facilities, tech, scouting, and all of the goodies that teams that regularly rank at the top of the farm system rankings do.

Second is the ridiculous frequency with which the club rushes prospects through the system and to the big leagues. While that includes how they've handled guys like Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel, and Christian Moore, it's even more egregious when you look at how Caden Dana and Sam Aldegheri were handled last season. While the position players listed above were given consistent opportunities at the major league level, these two hurlers were not treated like the system's top arms, but rather like Quad-A journeyman who were needed simply to save a depleted bullpen once in a while. Both have seen their prospect shine dim considerably as a result.

Not only does this hinder these youngsters from turning into contributors in the bigs, but it also diminishes their value on the trade market. Until the Angels fix this deficiency, they'll continue to be stuck in the mud.

3. Leverage their market to build up the brand and revenue

While the Angels and Dodgers share the Los Angeles name, it's not really an accurate description. The Dodgers have dominated LA basically since they moved from Brooklyn. The Angels have had something of an identity crisis throughout their history, branding themselves as the California Angels, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and finally the iteration we see today.

The truth is, the Angels are primarily an Orange County team. That might seem like it puts them in a much smaller market, but Orange County is actually the sixth-most populous county in the country.

Throw in the stragglers from Los Angeles who prefer the Halos, and you have an incredibly large base. Engaging it and growing the brand is going to require positive momentum on the field first, but once that happens by accomplishing steps one and two, it's time to put it into overdrive and become a behemoth like the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, and Blue Jays.

The Angels had this opportunity when they landed Ohtani, and could have branched out into the Asian market to further open up their revenue streams, but squandered the chance through poor investments and a fear of overextending themselves. That chance of global dominance might not come around again, but there's no reason they can't establish themselves as a financial powerhouse due to their market size. They'll just have to get out of their own way first.