Rumored Shohei Ohtani trade blocked by Arte Moreno would've altered the Angels franchise

When Arte Moreno interferes with the Los Angeles Angels baseball operations, bad things happen. Famously, Moreno got so irritated waiting for the Los Angeles Dodgers to settle their affairs in 2020 that he backed out of a trade that would have landed Andy Pages. Given his ascension with the Dodgers over the last two years, that decision from Moreno is certainly a stain.

In true Moreno fashion, he managed to top his own incompetence. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal recently reported the Angels were in serious discussions with the Tampa Bay Rays about a trade involving Shohei Ohtani. Talks advanced ahead of the 2023 MLB trade deadline, with Ohtani just months away from becoming a free agent.

At the time, it was a will they or won't they situation for the Angels and Ohtani. Rather than lose him for nothing during the offseason, there was a case that trading Ohtani should have been the move. Instead, LA awkwardly tried to turn the final two months of Ohtani's tenure into a push for the playoffs. It was short-lived, considering most of their deadline additions--Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dominic Leone--were dumped on waivers at the end of August.

If the Angels were intent on being the top bidder for Ohtani during free agency, the move made sense. Though, it was a strategy that ignored the impression that Ohtani already had his eye on the Dodgers.

Angels would've won Shohei Ohtani's exit had they traded him to the Rays

Which brings us to the failed trade that Rosenthal suggests was shot down by Moreno. In the proposed deal, the Angels would have landed infield prospects Junior Caminero and Carson Williams. Yes, the Junior Caminero who has reached superstardom through his first four seasons in Tampa Bay.

While Williams hasn't quite reached that level, or lived up to the lofty potential he had as a prospect, he's only 22 years old and has just 41 games played under his belt. There's still plenty of time for him to figure things out. At the very least, he would have been a clear answer for the team at second base.

Ohtani is always going to be Ohtani, but had Moreno stayed out of the way, that trade could have been what revived life into the Angels' franchise. Not only would Caminero have addressed the exhausting need the Angels still have at third base, but he would have been a clear building block to build around for the next decade.

It truly makes Angels fans wonder what could've been for an Angels team that still had Mike Trout, but more importantly, Caminero and Zach Neto to usher in a new era of actual contention. Instead, the Angels are where they've always been; at the bottom of the American League West with no sense of direction. A Moreno master class.

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