Arte Moreno is not selling the Angels after all

Jan 24, 2023 - 2:27 PM

Back in August, word came out that Anaheim Angels owner Arte Moreno was exploring selling the team. This was generally perceived to be a positive thing for Angels fans, as Moreno’s stewardship of the team has been uniquely unsuccessful, particularly given that Mike Trout has been with the team for the last decade.

Sadly for Angels fans, it appears that a sale is not going to be happening. It was announced yesterday that Moreno will not be selling the team.

The 76 year old Moreno bought the Angels in 2003 from Disney for $183.5 million. It has proved to be an especially profitable transaction for Moreno — when the news broke that he was exploring a sale, the expectations were that the team would fetch well over $2 billion.

When ownership groups announce that they are exploring a sale, they almost always end up selling, and so Moreno pulling the team back off the market is surprising. That being said, Moreno has been a very hands-on and mercurial owner during his time with the Angels, and so this is not entirely out of character.

With Moreno keeping the team, we shall see if the club chooses to seriously engage Shohei Ohtani in extension talks. Ohtani is slated to become a free agent after the 2023 season.