Angels won’t get the Stan Kroenke approval at GM meetings, delaying key hires

The entire MLB world is already under a time crunch this month, since they'll need to truncate most of an entire offseason into just the next four weeks before the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) expires on Dec. 1. The Los Angeles Angels are under even more duress, since they have to complete their sale of ownership from Arte Moreno to Stan Kroenke before the lockout begins if the latter wants to throw his hat in the ring during the negotiations with the players' union.

There have been a number of timelines given on when that sale will actually go through -- the other 29 owners must vote on it and at least 23 (75%) must approve it -- though the most recent expectation has been that the annual November General Manager meetings would be the place to get it done. Interim general manager John Mozeliak suggested as much to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register earlier this week.

However, Fletcher now says that sources have soured on that idea, expecting that the GM meetings will primarily focus on player movement as a de facto version of the Winter Meetings (which won't happen this year due to the lockout).

Angels are running out of time to get anything done before MLB lockout

There are serious ramifications for this delay, the most notable of which is that the Angels don't have any hierarchy of leadership in place. Their current owner (Moreno) is a lame duck who isn't interested in handing out more checks before he sells the team, their general manager (Mozeliak) still has an interim label and is waiting to help out with the search for the next president of baseball operations, and there is no manager now that Kurt Suzuki has officially been dismissed.

That might not completely take the Halos out of the running for various free agents and trade targets, but it does complicate the process a tremendous amount. Mozeliak, who might be out of the picture before long, also doesn't have much interest in making decisions that will have long-term ramifications for the franchise if he won't be the one overseeing the Angels during that time.

The next possible date on the calendar for a potential approval of the sale would be the Owners Meetings in NYC, which take place from Nov. 17-19. That's probably the last chance for Kroenke to step in before the lockout begins.

Even then, that would give the new ownership group less than two weeks to hire new executives, bring in a new coaching staff, and make signings and trades. That's simply not a large enough window to get all of that done.

As such, while the rest of the league hurries to get their business done before December, things might be very quiet in Anaheim.

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