It’s a rare event when Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno surfaces to make comments about the team, and this week he made his annual spring training appearance, offering a series of comments that started with the Angels' payroll and uncertain broadcast situation that were “particularly noteworthy,” according to Mark Polishuk and Darragh McDonald of MLBTradeRumors.com. From there Moreno moved on to some comments that were truly head-shaking, which is on point, unfortunately, with what the Angels owner usually delivers.
The payroll and broad cast issues are interconnected, and they've been in the news a lot lately. Last season, the Angels were broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network West, which is owned by Main Street Sports. But the company has been struggling lately, missing payments to multiple teams, which led a total of nine clubs, including the Angels, to terminate their deals.
Six of those teams will now have their broadcasts handled by the league via MLB.TV, but the Angels are one of the remaining holdouts, which means there are no broadcasts of their initial spring training games because they have no home outlet.
Moreno promised some clarity on this situation “in the next five to seven days,” which doesn’t exactly sound promising given how close we are to the regular season as this point.
When asked if the Angels would be joining MLB.TV, Moreno said, “I’m not telling you I wont’t,” which is a word-salad comment that requires some interpretation.
As always, it’s all about the money with Moreno. It always is with owners, but for Moreno that’s especially the case, as evidenced by his low spending on retread players and injury rehab cases this offseason.
The money numbers here are intriguing. According to Travis Sawchik of MLB.com, the clubs joining on with MLB’s broadcast package get average of approximately 50 percent less revenue than they have in the past, which is significant for all of the small-market teams that are mostly involved in this transition.
Moreno also commented on the team’s offseason spending, or lack thereof. The Angels payroll is down from $206 million to just over $180 million, according to multiple sources, but the common perception is that little or none of that money has actually been spent on the team.
“The question is do one or two players substantially change (the record)? If you go out and spend $15 or $20 million a year times three or times five, it doesn’t get it done,” Moreno said. “Will [payroll] get back to $200 million? Probably. We’ve got to get our TV thing worked out and we just have to improve our brand.”
The headline quote here is a doozy, and it sums up the reason a large portion of the fan base has come to loathe the skinflint owner. It stems from a series of fan surveys that Moreno is apparently using to run the team to at least some extent.
"The number one thing fans want is affordability,” Moreno said. “They want affordability. They want safety, and they want a good experience when they come to the ballpark. Believe it or not, winning is not in their top five….The moms want to be able to afford to bring the kids. Moms make about 80% of the decisions. They want to be able to bring their kids and be affordable and they want safety and they want to have a good experience, so they get all the entertainment stuff or whatever.”
The Angels also got some recent publicity about their front office being on the hot seat, and GM Perry Minasian was mentioned at the end of a recent piece in The Athletic as someone who should be nervous. He’s on the last year of his five-year deal, which hasn’t gone well, and Moreno’s remarks about his GM indicate that he should be.
“I really like Perry. At the end of the day, you have to start adding up wins and losses,” Moreno said.