Ken Rosenthal Says the Angels Are a Sleeping Giant. Here’s What Has to Happen Next.

The Los Angeles Angels are sitting at 36-51 heading into the All-Star break, which is not great. But it’s not really about the record for a lot of people who follow the team closely. It’s about what happens after the season ends.

This franchise has a weird problem. They play in a beautiful part of California where most players would love to live. They have a ballpark that’s fine. They have a fanbase that shows up. And yet they’ve been stuck in neutral for years, even during the brief period when they had both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on the same roster.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic put it bluntly on a recent episode of Foul Territory. He called the Angels a “sleeping giant” and said the key variable is ownership. “If they ever get a new owner, I imagine they will be a very dynamic franchise in short order,” Rosenthal said. He noted that under Arte Moreno, the team has not been dynamic, even with two all-time greats on the payroll. “Who doesn’t want to be in Orange County, California? It’s beautiful,” he added.

That’s the thing. The Angels have a lot of what other franchises would kill for. A massive TV market. A desirable location. A history that includes a World Series win in 2002. But the man cutting the checks has been a polarizing figure. Moreno has drawn criticism for not spending aggressively on free agents, for letting key pieces walk, and for squandering the Ohtani era entirely. Ohtani is now in L.A. wearing Dodger blue, and the Angels are watching from the bottom of the division.

There have been rumors off and on about Moreno potentially selling the team. Nothing concrete, but the chatter never fully dies down. For a franchise that’s been a middle-of-the-pack spender despite its market size, a sale could shake things up in a real way. New ownership often means a new front office, a new philosophy, maybe even a new willingness to throw money at the problems.

The Angels still have Mike Trout, though he’s been banged up. They’ve got some young arms. They’ve got pieces. But the machine doesn’t work if the person running it doesn’t want to push all the buttons. Until that changes, they’re just a nice place to visit.