The Los Angeles Angels have had Mike Trout for a decade.
They have also had Shohei Ohtani for four years, and Anthony Rendon since 2020.
Other notable players have come and gone, yet they haven’t been able to change a reality: the Angels haven’t been competitive for years.
“The Angels will finish under .500 for the seventh year in a row, the longest active streak in MLB,” Talkin’ Baseball tweeted.
The Angels will finish under .500 for the seventh year in a row, the longest active streak in MLB pic.twitter.com/eAzGbA692Q
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 14, 2022
Not even Trout, the best player of our generation, has been able to change the Angels’ fate.
Not even two consecutive record-setting campaigns from Ohtani, who contributes as an ace and as a middle-of-the-order masher, can make Los Angeles so much as a winning team.
The Angels Are A Dysfunctional Organization
The Angels are, in reality, a dysfunctional franchise led by an owner who wants out and has expressed his desire to sell the team this season.
When it comes to baseball operations, they are still paying for their decision to largely ignore pitching development for years.
They have made taking pitchers a priority in the last couple of drafts, and while it could pay off in a couple of years (perhaps a bit more), it’s too early to tell if they took the right ones.
Injuries, of course, haven’t helped one bit, but that’s a problem every franchise has to face.
The Angels have to make sure to revamp their coaching and player development staff all around the organization, not just at the major league level.
Next year will be the last one of Ohtani’s team control, and the Angels will need to be much better than the 61-82 team they are today if they want to retain him.
