Rumors hint Arte Moreno almost took unprecedented risk with Angels' pitching program

Much has been made of the Angels pitching this season - and for the past decade (or longer). The organization has not had a true ace since Shohei Ohtani's flashes of being one during his Angels' career (although Yusei Kikuchi has flirted with that title this season). The overall depth of the pitching within the organization has been called into question as well, especially with the lack of many internal pitching prospects lasting as starters in the big leagues. ESPN’s Jeff Passan revealed that owner Arte Moreno came incredibly close to making a drastic change in 2023 regarding an Angels legend. 

Troy Percival was a guest at Angels spring training in 2023, where he reportedly made quite the impression on Moreno. During a guest spot on the "Baseball Tonight Podcast", Passan revealed that Moreno was ready to give the reigns to Percival: “There was a time a couple years ago where Arte Moreno was just straight up ready to hand the entirety of the Angels pitching program to Troy Percival. Like literally. The Angels had a whole staff and Troy Percival was going to be in charge and [Arte] was eventually talked out of that."

Rumors hint Arte Moreno almost took unprecedented risk with Angels' pitching program

Percival obviously was not hired, but just the idea of allowing him to run their pitching program shows how out of his depth Moreno is. Percival’s coaching career consists of two high schools, University of California-Riverside (where he went 111-117), and now is the manager of the Idaho Falls Chukars of the Pioneer League. Yes, Percival has been a head coach and mentor to players before, but to be ready to hand him the entire pitching program of a major league organization would have been a huge leap for Percival, and Passan reports Moreno was ready to do just that. 

A large part of his reason is likely due to Percival’s well-known contributions to the 2002 World Series championship roster. Moreno has always been partial to that era of Angels baseball, and Passan went into detail about how it continues to effect the organization today, explaining, “The love that [Arte] has for that championship team and really for the late 90s/early 2000s Angels, the Darin Erstad, Troy Percival, Tim Salmon, Garrett Anderson. The Angels are where they are I think because Arte Moreno is constantly trying to recapture something from a bygone era. And it's almost as if the Angels in some ways are the team that acts like the saber metric revolution never happened. I'm not saying that they're behind other teams or have been as bad as they have essentially since Mike Trout arrived because they don't use analytics, or don't use them to the extent others do, but it's part of it. It's part of the stew of discontent that has taken over there.”

While the Percival signing did not ever happen, the announcement that it was genuinely considered by Moreno is another shining example of how far behind this organization is. Percival is one of the most beloved Angels of all time - and it is okay for Moreno to simply let him exist as that. His desire to consistently rekindle the early-2000’s Angels baseball is damaging to the organization (amongst other things), and it appears Moreno came close to taking another misstep because of this adoration.

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