Angels general manager Perry Minasian informed reporters tonight that the two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani will open the 2023 season in Anaheim (via Orange County Register’s Jeff Fletcher). The Angels have no plans to trade Ohtani, according to Minasian.
“Ohtani don’t move“, the general manager told reporters. “He will be here. He will be with us to start the season. I know there have been rumors and all kinds of things, but he will be there. He will be part of the club. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we love the player. I think our goal is for him to stay here a long time.”
It’s quite a surprising sentiment, as the Angels never seemed very likely to move the 2021 AL MVP. Despite what would surely have been huge interest at last summer’s trade deadline, Anaheim has pulled Ohtani off the market almost immediately. Reports later indicated that owner Arte Moreno had instructed his front office not to process the two-time All-Star.
A few weeks later, Moreno announced that he was exploring the possibility of selling the franchise. This process would have already been underway by the time the trade deadline arrived, and the ability to market an Ohtani-fronted listing to potential buyers would have played a part in the owner’s thinking. There hasn’t been much recent news on the sale process, although The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reiterated last week that Moreno plans to complete the sale.
Exploring the sale could take up most or all of the offseason, leaving the franchise in a state of uncertainty. The Halos are coming off a 73-89 season that marked their seventh straight below-average campaign. Anaheim fired Joe Maddon midseason and replaced him with Phil Nevin, but the management trade failed to reinvigorate a team that crumbled after a strong first month and a half. Minasian and his front office staff will get to work trying to build around a core led by Ohtani and Mike Trout. The Halos have a promising rotation ahead of Ohtani, Patrick Sandoval, Reid Detmer and Jose Suarezbut they lack depth in the bullpen and don’t have much roster certainty beyond Trout, Ohtani and, to a lesser extent, the right fielder Neighborhood Taylor.
How much money Moreno is willing to allocate to build a roster he ostensibly part ways with in the coming months is a question that hangs over the offseason. The Angels opened the 2022 season with a payroll of about $188 million, according to Cot’s baseball contracts. Including projected salaries for players eligible for arbitration, the Halos have approximately $145.5 million in commitments on the books next year. This includes salaries equal to or greater than $30 million for each of the Anthony RendonTrout and Ohtani.
This latest commitment was agreed upon last month, when the Angels and Ohtani agreed to a $30 million deal for his final season in control of the club. This set the record for the highest salary for a player eligible for arbitration in major league history, quickly ruling out any possibility of the parties going to a hearing on his 2023 salary. they recently discussed a longer-term deal, and Ohtani is currently on track to be the top free agent in class next winter.
Minasian and company would surely like to keep the unique talent in Orange County for the long term, but it remains to be seen if the 28-year-old is eager to engage in extension talks with the current uncertainty of franchise. Fans of other teams will surely hold out hope that the Angels will change course in their resistance to dealing Ohtani, perhaps pointing to the other franchise currently on sale as a hoped-for example. Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said in June the team would not trade Juan Soto, but they reconsidered and eventually moved it at the deadline after Soto turned down what turned out to be their final long-term extension offer. That said, it’s usually rare to hear a head of baseball operations officially close the book on a potential roster maneuver, and it would now register as big of a surprise as ever if Ohtani wore anything other than an Angel uniform on the day. of the opening.
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