Angels organization torn to shreds in The Athletic's anonymous survey of MLB players

The Angels under Arte Moreno's ownership have long been seen as a dysfunctional mess. Owners of the MLB's longest playoff drought, it has long been assumed that the organizational chaos extends well beyond the club's ability to put a winning product on the field.

Now, a recent survey of anonymous MLB players by The Athletic (subscription required) shows just how poor the Halos' reputation is around the league. When asked to name which organizations had good and bad reputations around the league, the results were striking.

The usual suspects were at the top of the favorability rankings, with the Los Angeles Dodgers blowing everyone away and the New York Yankees coming in as the runner-up, with another sizeable gap between them and the third-place Atlanta Braves.

The Angels, on the other hand, didn't receive a single favorable vote. Instead, the team was saddled with 19 selections for having a bad reputation amongst the players. Those 19 votes had them ranked sixth from the bottom with some truly terrible company.

The only teams who fared worse than the Angels were the Pirates (24 votes), the Marlins who actively try to be uncompetitive (25 votes), the 13-55 Colorado Rockies (25 votes), the White Sox who set records for being bad in 2024 (31 votes), and the Athletics who might have the worst ownership situation in all of baseball (39 votes).

Speaking about the Angels, one player left us with this scathing commentary:

"They just don’t know what they’re doing top to bottom. That’s what I’ve heard."

Anonymous player via The Athletic

Ouch!

The poll highlights what we already know about the Angels, but the implications run deeper than surface-level complaints

One particularly striking nugget of the survey was the way the Angels differ from the rest of the bottom feeders in the poll. All of the other clubs in the bottom six rank near the bottom of the league in 2025 payroll, with the Athletics, White Sox, and Marlins ranking 28th, 29th, and 30th, respectively. The Rockies came in at 24th, and the Pirates ranked 22nd. The Angels, despite Arte Moreno's reputation for being cheap, rank 11th at $194.5 million, nearly three times that of the last-place Marlins.

More than just a refusal to spend, it has been the meddling and the poor decisions by Moreno that have seriously contributed to the Angels ranking so poorly. It makes sense that the players wouldn't look fondly on penny-pinching organizations like the Athletics or the Marlins, but while they know Arte might open up the checkbook and pay them, he can't be counted on to make the right decisions to turn dollars into a winner. Furthermore, he's unlikely to spend on the necessities beyond player salaries that make for a solid organization.

Moreno isn't the only one to blame, however. Perry Minasian is the Angels' general manager, and he, too, has had his fair share of issues creating a consistent vision for the team.

Furthermore, in a different section of the poll, players were asked which manager other than their own they'd most like to play for and least like to play for and Ron Washington who has come into the crossfire at times this season, received equal votes (four) on either side of the debate.

Washington's reputation proceeds him, which helps in some players eyes, but his recent ineptitude contributes to the top-down narrative. For the record, it's not age that held the 73-year-old Washington back in the players' opinions, as 70-year-old Bruce Bochy and 66-year-old Terry Francona led the voting for manager the players would most like to play for.

Add in the Angels' failings at player development, subpar facilities, and being second-fiddle to a prideful, big-spending goliath like the Dodgers, and you have a recipe for disaster.

With all that said, the Angels have exceeded expectations so far this season, even if at times it has been a rollercoaster ride. Winning ball games cures a lot of ills, and if the club can do that and make solid decisions in the future, they can turn this perception around.

Until that happens, though, they'll be at a disadvantage in every free-agent negotiation and even in hammering out extensions with their own players. Word gets around, and if players talk and warn outsiders to avoid Anaheim while counseling the Angels' young core that the grass is greener elsewhere, the Angels may plunge even further into the depths of mediocrity and irrelevance.

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