Angels Ownership Change Is Being Fast-Tracked Ahead Of Lockout

The Los Angeles Angels are getting a new owner, and he’s arriving sooner than expected. Stan Kroenke was originally scheduled to take control of the Halos after the first of the year, but that timeline is now accelerating, according to a report from Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. 

Fletcher is reporting that control is likely to be passed later this month, with the owner’s vote now scheduled to be held some time during the week of Nov. 16. 

File this in the category of surprising but not shocking. The MLB owners meetings are scheduled to be held from Nov. 17-19 in New York, and the vote for Kroenke is expected to be perfunctory given reports that his net worth is approximately $27.6 billion. 

Interim GM John Mozeliak is still issuing statements about this, but it remains to be seen how long that will last. 

“We’re going to wait on the vote, and once the vote happens there will be an aggressive pursuit,” Mozeliak said, referring to moves and changes that could be made. 

This is where things get a little confusing. The GM meetings are being held next week starting on Nov. 9, and deals are expected to be made there, with a possible “flurry of free agent activity,” per multiple reports, along with setups for possible announcements that could be forthcoming at the owners meetings. 

Mozeliak will supposedly be “collecting information” at the GM meetings, per Fletcher, but the interim GM did add that KSE, which is the formal designation for Kroenke’s sports group, “will be in the lead.” 

That could change dramatically, perhaps even by the end of this week. Mozeliak was appointed by soon-to-be former owner Arte Moreno, and Kroenke quickly punted on the prospect of having the interim GM stay past his current contract, which expires in December. 

It’s hard to imagine that Kroenke would want Mozeliak at the GM meetings in any capacity other than that of a figurehead, so the next thing to look for is an announcement clarifying how that’s going to work. 

That could go one of two ways: (1) Kroenke could name a representative from his group who will be present and possibly active at the GM meetings, or (2) the new owner could be ready to name an actual GM or prominent assistant as the first step in that part of the hiring process. 

The first possibility is more likely, but don’t rule out anything here. It’s starting to sound like Kroenke is ready to move and maybe be active, so something more definitive could be happening very soon.