Angels media landscape shifting after insider makes surprising national move

The Los Angeles Angels aren't broadcasting spring training games this year, and they have yet to reveal their broadcast plan for games during the regular season. It's become increasingly harder for Angels fans to access information about the team, and now, a month before Opening Day, the team's beat is undergoing a notable change.

The Athletic's (subscription required) Sam Blum has been covering the Angels for the outlet over the past five years and is shifting his role ahead of the regular season. Blum revealed that his time covering only the Angels is ending, but he will continue his work at The Athletic as a national writer.

The writing had been on the wall that Blum was destined for a larger role at The Athletic. While the Angels didn't appear in a single postseason series during his time covering the team, Blum did cover the postseason, following the World Series runs of the Astros and Diamondbacks in recent years.

Angels' beat loses a familiar face in Sam Blum as questions surround the actual plan of the team

A beat writer is never going to have an approval rating of 100% with the fanbase of the team they are covering. There's a balance required, considering one doesn't want to be viewed as an extension of the team, but also not negative for the mere purpose of being negative.

Along those lines, the common critique of Blum during his time on the Angels' beat is that he may have leaned into the negative. The problem with that is that negativity surrounded every level of the Angels during Blum's tenure.

Sure, the Angels had Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani for most of their coverage, but that resulted in zero winning seasons. Off the field, there was no shortage of discouraging news pieces that had to be covered. Even as Blum leaves the beats, the aftermath of the Tyler Skaggs' trial can still be felt. Arte Moreno, intentional or not, also makes it easy for the coverage of the Angels to lean toward a negative nature.

Losing a beat writer is never a good thing, especially when it seems that The Athletic is moving forward without a dedicated Angels' beat reporter. Sure, there's a larger conversation needed about the state of journalism in sports, but for now, it's one less platform for fans to get information on the Halos.