just couldn’t do it. The Angels owner, who put the team up for sale in August, told Sports Illustrated he wasn’t ready to give up his team despite receiving three offers worth more than the record $2.42 billion Steve Cohen purchased the New York Mets for in 2020.
“I had some big numbers,” Moreno said in an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci. “Yeah, it was above the Mets’ number. Well, it was considerably above the Mets’ number.
“I had one buyer come to [Angel Stadium] to close the deal,” he said, then recounted the exchange with the buyer. “When you got right down to it, I didn’t want to go.”
Moreno has not spoken to local media in three years. His interview with Verducci represented his first detailed comments about the Angels in at least two years.
He told SI that last year the Angels had five real trade offers for Shohei Ohtani and declared they would not trade him this year while they are contending for a playoff spot. Asked whether he would consider trading him if the Angels are not in playoff contention, Moreno replied:
“We expect to be a playoff contender. Everything in our plans putting this team together is about getting to the playoffs. So, I’m not going to sit here and wonder what happens in an outcome we’re not planning for. That would be like a fighter going into the ring and thinking, ‘What if I lose?’ If he does that, he will lose.”
While opening up about his decision not to sell, Moreno said his previous decision to put the team up for sale was not because he fell out of love with baseball.
It was more circumstantial than it was a change of heart. It wasn’t a change of heart,” he said.
Moreno announced his decision to explore the sale of the team in August 2022. The team was 52-71 at the time and mathematically eliminated from the playoffs 27 days later.
Four months earlier, the Anaheim City Council killed the deal to sell Angel Stadium and its surrounding property to Moreno’s management company, which planned to develop the property and either renovate or replace the stadium. It was a swift effort to limit the fallout after an FBI affidavit revealed Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu was under investigation for public corruption, with investigators alleging he provided confidential city information to Moreno’s management company with the hope Angels executives would reciprocate with at least $1 million in donations supporting his re-election campaign.The FBI never accused Moreno and the Angels of any wrongdoing and it was far from the only major company Sidhu and city representatives were accused of courting. Sidhu resigned and the council is still sorting through the fallout.