The Angels promised to compete in 2025 after an appallingly bad 63-99 record in 2024 that became the franchise's worst single-season performance. Arte Moreno expressed his frustration, but ultimately hedged on how aggressive the club would be in pursuing upgrades.
Fans had hoped this meant that the owner who cried poor when it came to re-signing Shohei Ohtani would open up the checkbook and spend money to fill the obvious holes on the roster. However, those comments he made to MLB.com back in October are telling. From the article:
"“The reality is we need to put a competitive team out there,” said Moreno, who indicated the payroll will go up compared to 2024. “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.”"Arte Moreno via Rhett Bollinger
Parsing through what Moreno actually said, it becomes clear that the Halos have had this plan from the beginning. That is, sign a couple of veterans, and improve the depth, but mostly hope for internal improvements in 2025 to build a pathway to true contention in 2026.
The Angels are gambling on internal improvements and health to fill their biggest needs
Rather than swim in the deep end of the pool and sign star free agents to fill obvious holes at the top end of the roster, Perry Minasian (via Moreno) is hoping that the impressive collection of young players the Angels have amassed will be able to fill those holes.
For example, why sign a clear ace like Corbin Burnes who was the jewel of the free agent pitching market, when you can simply hope and dream that Jose Soriano, a player with 20 career starts, can become that pitcher in 2025?
Why add another true impact bat like Anthony Santander, when you can simply pray that Mike Trout will stay healthy for the entire season after the franchise icon has only played 266 games the past 4 seasons?
Why solve the massive hole in the infield when you can just wish that Anthony Rendon, who is entering his age-35 season, can be the player you were hoping for when you signed him five unproductive and injury-plagued years ago?
And when Rendon fails to meet that expectation, you can slide Luis Rengifo to third base and pin those hopes and expectations on top-prospect Christian Moore who has just 25 games of minor league experience under his belt. That's a solid plan, right?
There will probably be another minor signing or two, but the Halos are likely not going to be playing in the big-kid sandbox for the remainder of the offseason. Heck, they haven't played there in a very long time. Instead, they'll try to sell the package of improved depth and internal improvements as having done enough to compete and they'll inevitably fall short. They'll then tell us that 2026 is the year, but recent history suggests that fans would be unwise to believe them.
This is a team that shares a market with the biggest Goliath in professional sports, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who make no bones about throwing their financial weight around. Instead of aspiring to do the same, Arte Moreno is hoping to follow in the Kansas City Royals' footsteps. Just be grateful it isn't worse.