Timing of Angels Sale Puts New Ownership In A Tight Spot

The Los Angeles Angels have a new owner, and that’s the good news after a horrid season in which the team lost 100 games for the first time in franchise history. Stan Kroenke has a trophy room full of championship hardware, so there’s little doubt the team will be run the right way. 

But the timing of the sale also puts Kroenke and his sports group in a tough spot. Kroenke’s group doesn’t take over officially until after the first of the year, and that’s creating all kinds of unique problems. 

The first was solved when the Angels finally formally moved on from manager Kurt Suzuki. Interim GM John Mozeliak made the announcement about that this week, and he also said he won’t be continuing past his current contract, which runs out in December. 

That eliminates the problem of Mozeliak talking up Suzuki as a possible managerial candidate for next year, but now there are a couple of new problems on the horizon. 

The first is a brief period of free agency that’s going to happen in November, with The Athletic reporting that there could be a “frenzy” that starts with the GM meetings in early November. Normally the signing activity would really begin with the winter meetings, but those won’t be happening now with the lockout expected to begin on Dec. 1. 

Will the Angels have someone in place to make deals in the next two weeks? That’s the next big question facing the new ownership, which certainly sounds awkward with Arte Moreno still technically in charge as the owner. 

If that frenzy actually occurs — and there’s no reason it won’t given what we saw back in 2021 — the Angels run the risk of being left behind, or they might have to make important moves without a lot of time to actively evaluate the current roster. Presumably plenty of work as already happened with this, but it creates a disjointed process that could easily lead to big mistakes. 

The other issue is that the owners are reportedly preparing for a long lockout. Whether this actually happens is an open question, as the owners typically operate by declaring that they’re ready to go the distance to get a salary cap, only to cave when they start losing game revenue in the spring. 

That creates more problems for the new ownership group, which will have stilted timelines to get things done. It’s not an unsolvable problem, but it will require a lot of creativity that we haven’t seen for a long time in Anaheim.