Arte Moreno gave another end-of-year interview about the 2025 Angels and beyond

Arte Moreno gave an interview to local reporters last week, now he is talking to mlb.com. He's speaking with everybody these days. Except his nemesis, Sam Blum of The Athletic.

The mlb.com interview contained mostly the same kind of content from the prior interview. One interesting bit from Moreno pertained to the idea of 2025, and how fans should perceive next season differently.

“We have some young players and more depth than we’ve had. And we’ll have even more depth in ’26. When you’re looking at ’25, you’re looking at a combination of ’25 and ’26. What we have to do is do things in ’25 to be as competitive as we can, but we also want to do things to enhance ’26 so we’ll be deeper.”

How will the Angels go about acquiring depth, the facet of roster-building that has plagued them for about a decade now? Moreno is making it seem like they will target long-term solutions, guys who are unproven but with solid future value. They clearly are going to be active in trades for acquirable, controllable contracts. Players with upside like Brett Baty, who are blocked on their own team. The Mets might be willing to let Baty find more playing time elsewhere, while receiving back players who play a higher priority position. Any chance the Angels have of making another trade like a Marsh-for-O'Hoppe, they will take.

Additionally, the Angels should be willing to eat salary (if Moreno is to be believed) and could take back a contract from a rebuilding team. Moreno did say, "we need to spend enough money, keep our fans engaged and for them to understand what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s not for a lack of trying.” Trading some of their fringe players and mid-tier prospects for a bigger name would fit the bill here. They just need new blood. Perhaps players Brendan Rodgers, Ryan McMahon, Chris Paddack, Nico Hoerner, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Jameson Taillon, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, David Bednar, Jonathan India, or Mike Yastrzemski?

There are certainly free agents the Angels can go after, as they are not short on positions of need. If the Angels can de-clutter their 40-man roster and find a nice balance of trades and signings, they could certainly turn some heads next year. While Moreno is saying spending will increase, they do not just want to throw money at issues. They would rather make more trades at this point in time The Angels are not a free agency destination and have to pay premium prices to convince players to play in Anaheim now. California has a lot of state tax, and the Angels facilities are subpar.

Moreno is trying to keep Angels fans engaged, as their standing in the national spotlight has dwindled. Fans are not showing up when the Angels come to their stadiums. Mike Trout is now out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Shohei Ohtani is gone. Moreno might be doing more interviews now just to try and stay relevant, if nothing else.