Low key, the Los Angeles Angels have to be one of the most embarrassing clubs in Major League Baseball.
For years, they enjoyed the services of one of the greatest players of a generation Mike Trout only to waste his talents season after season.
But it didn’t end with Trout because somehow the Angels once again acquired the services of yet another generational player in Shohei Ohtani who like Trout will also go down as one of the greatest MLB players of all time.
Now if you weren’t paying attention, you could’ve assumed that the Angles would’ve been a mainstay in the postseason out of the AL West and probably would’ve had at least a couple of World Series titles under their belt.
However, the fact of the matter is the Angels haven’t made the postseason since 2014 when they were swept out of the ALDS by the Kansas City Royals marking the first and only time the Halos have made it to the playoffs in the Trout era.
But wait, it gets worse
Now as far as this season goes, the Angels currently sit 12 games back of the Mariners and Astros in the AL West and 11 games back of the last AL Wild Card spot meaning their 2023 campaign is all but over.
So how can things get worse you say?
Well, the Angels still have a bloated payroll, so much so that they still narrowly sit above the luxury tax threshold of $233MM after placing six players on waivers the other day, five of which went claimed in Lucas Giolito, Hunter Renfroe, Dominic Leone, Reynaldo López, and Matt Moore. The sixth, outfielder Randal Grichuk, however, went unclaimed meaning his $1.7MM payroll hit remains on the Angels’ books.
As Perry Minasian mentions above in Jeff Fletcher’s tweet, the prevailing thought is that he (Minasian) doesn’t believe his spending will be much impacted by the luxury tax next season if the Angels fail to get below that threshold this year. Where the luxury tax could really rub salt on an opened wound is if the Halos end up losing Ohtani this offseason. This comes to fruition when LA offers a qualifying offer to Ohtani which he’ll most likely decline. Now if and when Ohtani signs with another team, the Angels would receive a compensatory pick after the fourth round instead of after the second round.
Obviously, the Angels hope this is all a moot point since they undoubtedly hope to re-sign Ohtani this offseason. If that happens though, they’ll surely find themselves once again well above the luxury tax not to mention a need to find some help to surround Ohtani with. A commitment ownership has been unable to uphold in which case there’s no reason to believe anything will change even with a new contract given to Ohtani which could be in upwards of $50MM a season.
