Arte Moreno Excited About Young Core

Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno has been one of the most disparaged figures in baseball for a few years now. Despite years of sustained success early in his tenure as owner, he has not made the playoffs in 10 years — the longest active streak in MLB — and has squandered having two of the greatest players in league history at the same time in Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout.

Moreno used Ohtani’s departure to the L.A. Dodgers as a chance to reset the franchise in 2024. He slashed payroll and gave orders to focus largely on the development of a brewing young core. And while the Angels lost more games in a single season than they ever have, Moreno almost views the year as a success because of that young core.

Zach Neto, Logan O’Hoppe, Nolan Schanuel, Jose Soriano, Jack Kochanowicz and Ben Joyce all looked great in their first full-length MLB campaign, and are set to lead the next era of Angels baseball. Moreno is proud of that and is excited to finally have a young core to build around, via Jeff Fletcher of The O.C. Register:

“I feel we had a lot of growth with our young players,” he said. “We are really showing a lot more talent available going forward than we have for quite a few years. We’ve been trying to patch holes with free agents, and it hasn’t been working. It hasn’t worked in the way we want.”

Even with this young core in place, the Angels are seen as one of the worst farm systems in the league. But Moreno couldn’t disagree more.

“Look at a roster and see how many homegrown players we have playing for us,” Moreno said. “When people look at our system, they say, ‘Oh geez, they’ve got a low-rated system.’ Why do we continue to produce major-league players? We need to find the mix of players that are going to win. We have to win. At the end of the day, it’s all measured in wins and losses.”

The Angels absolutely have reason to feel excitement toward their 2025 season and beyond. They have developed a few players very well and can use free agency and trades as a means of filling holes as opposed to completely overhauling the roster.

Arte Moreno wants to contend in 2025

Both Perry Minasian and Moreno have discussed the silver linings that came from the 2024 season, largely focused on the development of their young core.

And Moreno has now made it clear that the Angels are going to increase payroll for 2025, and that Minasian has been given a relative green light to add pieces around the young core.