MLBPA Leader Slams Angels For Unwillingness to Spend

The Los Angeles Angels are coming off of a 63-win season in 2024.

Recently they have made some offseason moves that many around the league believe will not just improve upon the abysmal win total of last year, but get them back into the contender conversation in the American League.

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The Halos, specifically owner Arte Moreno, has recently gone under fire for the lack of spending in recent seasons.

In a conversation with The Athletic's Sam Blum, MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark was brutally honest in the Angels unwillingness to exceed the luxury tax threshold.

“They have decided as an organization to treat it as a cap,” Clark said. “And are making decisions against that backdrop. It’s unfortunate, particularly when they have an opportunity in the market that they are in.

“The way they’ve treated it and what it is are two different things.”

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The market in question is the nation's second-largest media market. The pressure to spend only increases as the other team playing in the greater Los Angeles area, the Los Angeles Dodgers, continue to spend frivolously seemingly every offseason.

Although Moreno declined to comment in response to Clark, Angels spokesperson Marie Garvey expressed her disdain in a written statement.

“That’s his opinion and we don’t agree with it,” the statement said.

There seems to be a new leaf being turned in Anaheim as this offseason proved lucrative in terms of the kind of contracts being inked.

The largest free-agent contract given out by the Angels in five seasons was a three-year, $63 million deal for southpaw Yusei Kikuchi to bolster the rotation. This signing, however, was the last before an almost two-month drought of major league signings in L.A. this offseason.

Clark further made his point, expressing his concern about the on-field product in MLB.

“We’re concerned about every team that isn’t focused on (putting) the best team possible on the field. And using something as a cap that isn’t a cap, that’s not why that was designed.”

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For more Angels news, head over to Angels on SI.