Angels News: Insider Predicts Moreno will Cut Payroll This Offseason

Sam Blum of The Athletic predicts the Angels will cut their payroll from last year, even with Shohei Ohtani's huge raise, to help Arte Moreno sell the team.

The folks over at The Athletic put together a list of free agency and trade predictions for all 30 teams. The prediction for the Angels was written by Sam Blum and doesn't paint a rosy picture for the team's short-term future:

The Angels will cut payroll. Payroll last year was about $180 million. And even with about $120-$130 million already committed, it stands to reason the payroll will still be cut. The Angels are in the process of selling the team, and it’s unclear if owner Arte Moreno is still in the business of winning, or in the business of selling at the best price. Selling could be complicated by acquiring risky assets, such as expensive free agents. Those typically haven’t gone well for the Angels anyway. The issue with a lower payroll is that the Angels don’t exactly have enough talent to reasonably expect they’ll improve without adding some good players.

The Angels started strong in 2022 and were in first place in the AL West in mid-May, but they went 49-76 from May 16 to the end of the season and finished 73-89 in third place. Cutting payroll seems like a strange approach coming off a season like that. And Shohei Ohtani will be making almost $25 million more in 2023 than he did in 2022, which makes a payroll cut even harder to fathom.

Still, as Blum explains, Moreno is trying to sell the team, so he will likely be unwilling to commit longterm money that might affect the value of his sale. There are free agents to be had, but they're likely out on any and all of the big names who are expecting big dollars.

Can Steve Cohen buy a second team? Asking for a friend.