Angels fans should actually be thankful for Arte Moreno after Rafael Devers massacre

Fans of the Boston Red Sox have completely looked past the fact that their owner has provided them with four World Series championships since 2004, the most in baseball. John Henry has been the most hated man in Boston ever since the Mookie Betts trade, and is coming under more fire now that he OK'd the Rafael Devers trade. The Red Sox have now shipped off Betts, Devers and Chris Sale, as well as let Nathan Eovaldi and Xander Bogaerts walk in free agency after being one of the most dominant teams in MLB history back in 2018. Trading away faces of the franchise is something that John Henry will do...but not our Arte Moreno!

Angels fans should actually be thankful for Arte Moreno after Rafael Devers massacre

Even if Mike Trout publicly demanded a trade, would the Angels even consider doing so? It's hard to believe that the front office has never received offers for the future first ballot Hall of Famer, with the pitch being revolved around the Angels being taken off the hook for the rest of Trout's gargantuan contract. Moreno has not let go of Trout despite the rampant injury issues, some decline in his on-field production and being paid roughly $37.1 million a year through the 2030 season. The Angels owner also refused to deal Shohei Ohtani despite nobody believing the two-way superstar would re-sign, and the Angels getting the opportunity to infuse much-needed talent into their woeful farm system.

Trading Devers and hypothetically trading Trout not a one-for-one analogy per se. The Angels do heavily rely on Trout's presence on their team to sell tickets, merchandise, advertisements etc., whereas the Red Sox do not necessarily need Devers in order to fill out Fenway Park, sell jerseys, et al. Part of the reason Moreno held onto Shohei Ohtani instead of trading him during either the 2022 or 2023 season was to keep fans going to Angel Stadium in order to watch Ohtani play baseball.

However, both contracts are almost definitely sunk costs despite the star players being able to post solid offensive numbers in 2025. Like Devers, Trout's been moved off his primary position and neither offers anything defensively even when they did play the field with consistency. Trout was a bad right fielders this year, and has been a full-time DH since he returned from the IL. Devers had notoriously been pencilled into Boston's DH spot all season after the team signed Alex Bregman in the offseason.

As bad as Arte Moreno is as an owner, at least he didn’t trade Trout to save money like John Henry did with Devers. For as much as the sport has moved towards analytics and algorithmic determination, organizations who hold onto fans' favorite players still should be lauded. Moreno does not have a lot going for him, but the notoriously cheap owner is not that bottom-line oriented to dump Trout for a whole bunch of nothing.

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