Angels History: Arte Moreno ruins chance to acquire future first ballot Hall of Famer

As the 2025 trade deadline approaches, it's a perfect time to look back at perhaps Arte Moreno's biggest failure as the Angels' owner. Moreno, who famously puppeteers the general managers he hires in order to be the one who truly runs baseball operations, has torpedoed several opportunities for the Angels to significantly improve their roster over the years. José Ramirez reportedly was on the table to join the Angels in the past, and Moreno submarined that chance. Well, during the winter of 2007, Moreno meddled the Angels out of the chance to acquire a different future Hall of Famer. This one is a bona fide first ballot Hall of Famer, unlike Ramirez.

Miguel Cabrera, who famously won American League MVP awards in 2012 and 2013 over Mike Trout as a member of the Detroit Tigers, was preparing himself to get traded away from the Marlins at the end of the 2007 season. The World Series champion was established as one of the sport's best players, and the bidding war was on when he became too expensive for the Marlins. While working out that offseason with then-Angels catcher Mike Napoli, Cabrera became intrigued by the prospect of joining the powerhouse Angels after Nap continually hyped the team up. "I thought I would be here," Cabrera told MLB.com in 2013.

The Angels' newly hired general manager, Tony Reagins, went deep into trade conversations with the Marlins to bring in Miggy, but he lost out to the Dave Dombrowski-led Tigers. "Dealer Dave" truly established himself that winter by shelling out Andrew Miller, Cameron Maybin, Burke Badenhop, Frankie De La Cruz, Mike Rabelo and Dallas Trahern in exchange for the Tigers' future franchise icon.

Just how close were the Angels to winning the Cabrera sweepstakes over the Tigers? Per reporting by Fabian Ardaya:

"According to the Los Angeles Times, they did not want to part with third baseman Brandon Wood, who was among the top prospects in baseball. But the Angels still had other appealing options, notably from their pitching depth including Nick Adenhart, Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana (though Santana had a no-trade clause). According to Jayson Stark, then of ESPN.com and now with The Athletic, the two sides had agreed that second baseman Howie Kendrick and catcher Jeff Mathis would be part of any Cabrera trade, though things briefly broke off at the end of November when Stark said the Angels grew 'frustrated with what they felt were last-minute changes.' 'According to Angels owner Arte Moreno,' Stark wrote, 'the Marlins twice increased their asking price as the teams appeared to be nearing a deal."

Fabian Ardaya

Shocker! The Marlins were negotiating for more in exchange for Miguel freakin' Cabrera! Moreno's pearl-grabbing over hard-line trade talks are a prime example of why he is such an incompetent owner.

Ardaya goes on to say that Cabrera would have been an Angel if Howie Kendrick, Jeff Mathis, Nick Adenhart and Ervin Santana were on the table. The 2008 and 2009 iterations of the Angels were quite good, and those players were a big reason why. In fact, the Angels ended up trading Casey Kotchman for Mark Teixeira, lost Teixeira in free agency (of course) and then subsequently received a compensatory draft pick that turned into Mike Trout. So, there's that.

A hypothetical of prime-Cabrera and prime-Trout playing together is juicy, even though the mechanics of that happening are too complex to truly envision. One can dream though.

LA Angels News from Halo Hangout