LA Angels owner Arte Moreno exposed as major contributor to MLB lockout continuation

Evan Drellich of The Athletic has reported that LA Angels owner Arte Moreno is one of four owners who are opposing the MLB luxury tax increase to $220 million. The other owners who also opposed this increase are Ken Kendrick (Arizona), Christopher Ilitch (Detroit), and Bob Castellini (Cincinnati).

Well, one of these owners is not like the others, and that's Angels owner Moreno. The other three owners on this list haven't shown the willingness to spend the way Moreno has in the past. Many Angels fans, including myself, believe that Moreno should still spend more so he can take advantage of having Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in their primes, but he still typically spends much more than these other three.

So, why would Moreno oppose the luxury tax threshold increase? Because as he's shown in the past, he doesn't want to spend any more than he has. To Moreno, wasting money on Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton, taking this massive chance on Anthony Rendon, and handing Trout a blank check is enough.

If the luxury tax is increased, Arte Moreno and the Angels would have to spend more to hang with other big spenders.

Clearly, Arte Moreno does not want to spend money on the LA Angels at that level, so he doesn't want other big market teams to have more room to spend on team payroll before they're punished for it. It's disappointing, as Moreno is worth $3.6 billion and has the two best players on the planet while owning a team in the second-biggest market in the country.

He has every reason to spend right now to surround those two players with as much as he possibly can and finally give them a pitching staff they can make the postseason with. You WILL get drowned out in the LA market if you're not aggressive. Just look at the other teams.

The Dodgers spend big on stars regularly. Even in a year like this when the Lakers are failing, they were still aggressive in trying to add who they expected to be a star in Russell Westbrook. The Clippers jumped at the chance to reel in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The Rams traded for Matthew Stafford, Von Miller, and Odell Beckham Jr. so they could win a Super Bowl. USC just made a mega hire in picking up Lincoln Riley.

LA fans are going to get bored of Moreno if he continues with these antics. This unfortunately proves that Moreno does not value having Trout in his prime, and having Ohtani in his prime for cheap. Don't get your hopes up for the Angels to acquire great pitching after the lockout. Moreno may have just tipped his hand.