Angels owner Arte Moreno has sights set on contending in 2025

Facing the offseason after a franchise-record 99 losses, Arte Moreno had specific instructions for general manager Perry Minasian.

“We have a plan to try to add players that are going to help us compete,” the Angels owner said. “Perry’s marching orders are we need to build a team that can compete for a playoff spot. When you get to playoffs, anything can happen.”

Moreno added that this is not a long-term plan.

“In 2025,” he said.

Moreno spoke by phone Saturday to the Southern California News Group on a wide range of topics in his first interview since spring training.

Moreno, who has owned the team since 2003, oversaw a period of success in his first decade, but has seen the Angels become a disappointment for much of the time since. The Angels haven’t made the playoffs since 2014 – the longest drought in the sport – and they haven’t had a winning season since 2015. Moreno has often come under fire for his decisions that led to the losing seasons.

Even though his critics grew even louder during this nightmare season, Moreno nonetheless has an optimistic view of where the franchise is headed. He’s encouraged by the progress of the young players, and he’s committed to supporting them with an increased payroll.

“It’s going to go up,” Moreno said.

This season the Angels slashed about $40 million from the 2023 payroll, which nearly exceeded the luxury-tax threshold. Most of that was having Shohei Ohtani’s $30 million salary come off the books. Moreno said the Angels would be spending more in 2025 than they did in 2024, although not as much as they did in 2023.

“We won’t go there again,” Moreno said. “It’s just an automatic loss. If I start piling up (financial) losses, then the next year I’m going to cut.”

While there are different ways to measure a team’s payroll, the Angels have consistently been above average, but not one of the top spending teams. Moreno seems content to keep the Angels below the level of the sport’s biggest spenders.

“The teams that are spending the money they’re spending, they’re losing a lot of money,” Moreno said. “Not a little bit of money. They’re losing a lot of money. And some teams are selling equity to keep their payroll up.”

After losing Ohtani last winter, the Angels mostly sat out the free-agent market. Their biggest deal was a three-year, $33-million contract with right-handed reliever Robert Stephenson.

Moreno said as they got into spring training they made a run at J.D. Martinez before he signed with the New York Mets.

Moreno said the Angels offered Martinez a one-year deal worth “somewhere around $12 million, nothing deferred.” Martinez signed a deal with the Mets that paid him $12 million, but he received only $4.5 million in 2024, and the rest was deferred, some until 2038.

“We thought he was coming,” Moreno said. “We thought he would really fit well into our DH.”

Without Martinez, and with Stephenson, Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon missing all or most of the season with injuries, the Angels were essentially a low payroll team.

The result was the most losses in franchise history.

“I hate to say it’s a terrible year because we had so much growth with our young people,” Moreno said, “but from wins and losses, it was a terrible year. Obviously, the worst year.”

Moreno nonetheless rewarded Minasian with a two-year contract extension. He said he appreciates the “communication” with Minasian and manager Ron Washington. Moreno said he and Minasian talk “every day.”

Moreno said his satisfaction with Minasian is largely because of what he perceives to be a strong young core.

“I feel we had a lot of growth with our young players,” he said. “We are really showing a lot more talent available going forward than we have for quite a few years. We’ve been trying to patch holes with free agents, and it has been working. It hasn’t worked in the way we want.”

Although various publications have consistently ranked the Angels’ farm system as one of the worst in the majors, Moreno disagrees with that assessment.

“Look at a roster and see how many homegrown players we have playing for us,” Moreno said. “When people look at our system, they say, ‘Oh geez, they’ve got a low-rated system.’ Why do we continue to produce major-league players? We need to find the mix of players that are going to win. We have to win. At the end of the day. It’s all measured in wins and losses.”

To that end, Moreno said he wants to “supplement” the young core.

“We have make sure we’re deep enough,” Moreno said. “We have to make sure our bench is deep enough if somebody gets hurt. It’s a little bit hard to be in a situation where there’s $72-73 million and they give us no production. It’s hard for me to just sit here and tell you, honestly, that I’m going to put $73 million more money on this payroll next year.”

That figure is a reference to the combined salaries of Trout and Rendon, who have been hurt for much of the past four seasons.

Although Moreno doesn’t seem willing to crank up the payroll to that degree, he said he wants to win again in 2025, with some additions and the current young players.

“That’s our goal,” he said. “We’re looking at ’25-’26, because of the young people coming, but our goal is to be in the playoffs in ’25.”

Among off the field topics, Moreno, 78, reiterated that he has no immediate plans to sell the team, echoing his stance from spring training.

He put the team on the market for a few months in 2022, but then reversed course early in 2023.

“I can’t tell you about the future,” Moreno said. “If someone makes some stupid, crazy offer, I’ve got to do what’s best for the family. I do the best I can to run it as a business.”

Moreno also said there is no current plan to revisit the ballpark development deal with the city. In 2022, Moreno had agreed with the city of Anaheim on a deal to purchase the ballpark and develop the surrounding area. The deal was killed when former mayor Harry Sidhu became embroiled in a corruption scandal.

“I’m not telling you we don’t have plans to revisit it, but I just felt there had to be a cooling period,” Moreno said. “They’re the ones that shot me down. It wasn’t like I did something. The mayor did something.”

Asked how long the “cooling period” would last, Moreno said: “I have no idea. There’s a new mayor (Ashleigh Aitken) and a new thought process.”

Moreno also said he wasn’t expecting any significant impact on the team or the fans from the bankruptcy proceedings involving Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of Bally Sports West.

The Angels are currently “in talks to restructure” the deal, a source said earlier this week. Moreno conceded that “there’s a possibility that (the revenue from the deal) may be a little lower,” but he said it wouldn’t have a significant impact on the way the team is operated or the payroll.

He also said, as the sports TV landscape shifts more toward streaming than traditional broadcasts, he wants to make sure the games are accessible for a reasonable cost.

“I don’t want to get in a situation where in order to get all the games (fans) have to pay so much more,” Moreno said. “I don’t want to do that. I want to make sure all our opportunities are affordable.”