Angels News: MLB's Rob Manfred Doesn't Know if Halos Will be Sold by Opening Day

He thinks the completion of the sale could be a long process.

Angels owner Arte Moreno is in the process of trying to sell the team. Moreno bought the franchise in 2003 for $180 million, just months after winning their first World Series title in franchise history. Twenty years later, the Angels haven't reached another World Series, have played in the postseason just six times and Moreno is looking to sell them for reportedly more than $3 billion dollars.

However, it may not be such an easy process.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called the process "ongoing," and said the league is "conducting background checks of potential bidders before releasing any financial information to them," according to the LA Times.

He did not give a timetable for how long this process could take.

"Probably too early to guess as to whether it will be done by opening day," Manfred said. "I think it is a really appealing franchise. I think there will be multiple bidders. When there are multiple bidders, it’s always more complicated."

That's great news for Moreno, but not so great news for Angels fans hoping this fiasco would be over with soon. It would've been nice to have the new ownership settled prior to the beginning of free agency, so they could have the opportunity to build a contending team as soon as possible.

Hopefully the sale doesn't interfere with the Angels' plans to field a winning team in 2023, but it's hard to imagine it won't be a distraction. The onus will be on Angels GM Perry Minasian to keep this distraction in the rearview mirror.