With a third of MLB teams trying to be winners in the return on their investment rather than on the field, it’s heartening to see the Angels going all in to win this year with Shohei Ohtani.
While taking Ohtani off the market and acquiring pitching help at the trade deadline will boost the club’s chances of breaking their long postseason drought, let’s be straight about one thing. The purpose of those decisions is not to reach the postseason, but to convince Ohtani that the Angels are committed to winning so that he might sign a contract extension and remain in Anaheim.
While the two prospects the Angels surrendered in the White Sox deal are nothing special, they were the cream of one of MLB’s worst minor league systems. Their loss further reduces the chance owner Arte Moreno’s team will be any better in the coming years.
Moreno, when he’s not busy stuffing the pockets of politicians trying to buy an exemption to state and local laws that would require him to build affordable housing if he develops the land he owns around Angel Stadium, says he is focused on winning. But no one believes him, because he is an addict.
Moreno dependent on getting his fix of shiny big-name players, at the cost of depth and building up the minor league system, and selling the farm in a futile effort to re-sign Ohtani is more evidence that he can’t help himself.
If the Angels do happen to make the playoffs, it will be a byproduct of the effort to sign Ohtani, but won’t fool anyone who has dealt with addicts, and knows they can’t be trusted to stop acting like addicts.
If they don’t make the postseason, Moreno will use his gamble as proof of his commitment to winning, and will promise to do right by Ohtani and actually try to build a winner at all costs. But no matter what Moreno promises, it is unlikely that either Ohtani or his agent Nez Balelo, can be conned into thinking that Angels’ addict owner will miraculously find the discipline he’s lacked for 20 years and dedicate himself to doing the hard work.
Moreno may be sincere, but if you’ve ever been around an addict, you know that addiction trumps any genuine desire to change.
