Los Angeles Angels shortstop Zach Neto is probably the Angels best all-round player, although Mike Trout is challenging him for that title with his outfield comeback and renewed sprinter’s speed.
Neto has been tearing it up so far as a leadoff man for the Angels in spring training, and while he’s talked about taking more of a leadership role, Neto had no idea what to make of owner Arte Moreno’s recent comments about Angels fans supposedly being more interested in “affordability” over winning.
Neto recently talked to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times about the possibility of an extension, according to a report from Anthony Franco of MLBTradeRumors.com, and of course he was asked about recent comments from Angels owner Arte Moreno that fan surveys indicate that “winning is not in (fans’) top five” concerns when attending games.
The shortstop told Shaikin that he “really doesn’t have an answer to that” as a concern for him in extension talks, but Neto did speak “broadly” about valuing loyalty and said he’d amenable to a long-term deal.
“If it happens, it happens,” he stated. "I would love to stay here. I would love to be here. But, if it doesn’t, then not every road is meant to be.”
Translation: This is blowback, basically. Angels players met with the new director of the MLBPA, Bruce Meyer, about Moreno’s comments, and Meyer said the players “took notice.”
It was only a matter of time before players were asked about this, and while Neto did manage to dodge the question to some extent, you don’t have to read between the lines all that hard to see what’s going on here.
Franco added that all of this might be moot given Neto’s situation as a whole, and he’s right about that to some extent. Neto is 25 right now, and he’s under team control for the next few seasons, but he’s going to be making more in arbitration every single season until he hits free agency at 29, leaving out the issue of a possible lockout next year for the moment.
We already know what happens to Angels players when they start to make more money these days--Moreno has GM Perry Minasian trade them. That happened to outfielder Tyler Ward this offseason, as the Angels decided to exchange Ward’s impending arbitration award of approximately $13 million for oft-injured Baltimore Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez, who’s making a lot less money as he tries to resurrect his career.
Expect more of this in the future. Other players will be asked about this, and they, too, will have to dodge the question. This is how you end up with a bad baseball team, and that’s the one thing Arte Moreno is really good at engineering, inadvertently or deliberately.