Fake Chow

And from August first of 2023, the Angels had zero shot of keeping him.  Their only chance to prove to Shohei that they could do what was necessary to win was 2023.  Just prior to the deadline they were within shouting distance of the wild card.  Injuries had piled up and Perry was essentially forced to make a bunch of trades to maintain what he was able to piece together from earlier in the season.  The problem was that his deadline was an absolute miserable failure that ultimately left the team with 73 wins and zero chance to re-sign him.  If you pull out all of the stops and end up with 73 wins while going 17-38 over the final 55 games of a must win season, you have zero chance to keep a guy who's main priority is winning.  
The long term success of any baseball franchise is the farm system.  You might be able to occasionally piece together a halfway decent team via the free agent market and some trades, but ultimately, to create sustainable winning, you need to have a capable farm system.  This is not a mystery to any of us.   
And it's not just about having a young, club controlled, major league team.  You always need to worry about the next guy.  Injury and poor performance happen as we've seen.  Over and Over and Over.  
Having Ohtani and Trout.  Two generational players and not being able to piece together a winner just tells you how important this really is.  And the real kick in the teeth is that the farm was kinda moving in the right direction yet to convince Ohtani to stay, you have to essentially put a major dent in what little progress the system had made.   And because they're stubborn and short-sighted as a franchise as they've been for the last 20 years, they were never going to trade their golden goose for what is actually even more important that a Unicorn.  
So here we stand once again.  With the worst farm in baseball.  Yes, there is some young talent on this roster but in order to win it will take everyone reaching their potential and very few, if any, injuries.  
I actually don't care that they didn't keep Shohei for that kind of money.  I'm most annoyed because of the double bitch slap at the end.  Not trading him AND selling off a bunch of prospects to try and keep him.  Recently I have wanted to believe that this franchise was doing things to move in the right direction.  Nope, they just doubled down and put themselves in a lose lose.  
I really don't think I'm gonna feel a lot of positivity toward this team until Arte no longer owns it.  

We've already got half of Rendon 

I'd enjoy it even more if they both miss the playoffs completely and would then go to work posting on their sites about how they are wasting the careers of Soto, Cole, Judge, Ohtani, Vlad Jr, and Bichette.
 

My amateur analysis is that something has to give.  You can’t wave a magic wand and have three times as many quality prospects.  That takes time.
So if you want to compete now, you gotta choose between trading away guys like Neto, OHoppe, etc OR you gotta open up the wallet.
I personally don’t want to blow up the core that is here because I want that core to be the foundation for 2025 and beyond.
So that leaves me with spend money.  Thats what has to give.  (The other thing that could “give” is give up on being competitive now, but they already said they are not doing that.)
And if you are going to spend money, why not spend it on a 25 year old free agent rather than a 31 year old free agent?

Too times

If this is true its even more frustrating we didn't trade him.

I'll always remember a sign a Red Sox fan had when they were playing the Yankees right after Damon signed with the Yankees.

It had a picture of Damon and said...

Looks like Jesus
Throws like Mary
Acts like Judas

I see we're at the "are we sure Ohtani is even good?" stage of grief. 

We know.  Mark Sanchez pretty much always mentions he went to high school with you.

He only pitched 14 games at home last season and he wont be pitching in 2024. The revenue he brings in doesn't offset running up to the cap and not being able to make significant improvements. Instead the Angels will be hobbling around with one year scrap heap guys to fill roster holes. That hasn't worked out the last 8 years.
When he does return to pitching it creates the 6 man rotation which has never proved successful, reducing your best pitchers by 7 games a year and tagging 26 games to a guy that shouldn't be in the rotation. He is a white elephant. 

Even though Rendon rolls off payroll in three years, Trout and Ohtani mega contracts will make it challenging to field a complete, balanced team without an about-face in how Arte views the luxury tax. Plus, Ohtani creates a lot of roster gymnastics surrounding the DH and a six-man rotation. 
 
It will be tough to see him go, but I think the Angels got his best years. We should be thankful for that and be shrewd with spreading around the FA dollars going forward. 
 
Personally I would rather invest in Yamamoto and sign a Soler/JD Martinez type to a short term deal to cushion the offensive loss. Angels could probably get Yamamoto and another #2-ish starter for the AAV Ohtani will command.  As great as Ohtani is, I think we are possibly a better club now and in the future if we let him walk. 
 
 

IMHO, its difficult to have one foot in the "rebuild" bucket and the other in the "be competitive" bucket.  It sure hasn't worked for us in the past.  I wish Arte would go all in one way or the other.  I'm tired of the Angels being below avg.

IMHO, its difficult to have one foot in the "rebuild" bucket and the other in the "be competitive" bucket.  It sure hasn't worked for us in the past.  I wish Arte would go all in one way or the other.  I'm tired of the Angels being below avg.

Some of you act like you never railed a line of Coke.

No but two people can look at something or read something and come up with two different opinions. You posted something on a public forum and someone viewed it different, that’s normal. 

I think Perry had the right idea last offseason. And the team was competitive for awhile, but the injuries just derailed everything and then the pitching dumped a truckload of oil and lit a match. 
The trade deadline acquisitions all fucking sucked, and part of me wants to think Arte pressured Perry to "go all in", but I'm not letting Minasian off the hook that easy. 
This offseason is going to be very telling. 

I would like to change my prediction about Ohtani signing with the Mets. 

I saw this thread topic and immediately thought “what do we need in order to be competitive next year?” 

For an owner who supposedly "loves baseball" - he doesn't always act like it.
I've said it before... the Angels have a culture problem and that starts with Arte.  At the end of the day, Arte may know how to make money - but he doesn't seem to know how to lead men and women.  He's not inspiring.  Great leaders make their teams feel safe.  He doesn't do that from what I can tell.  He seems to lack humility and I think many great leaders have that too.
I get the impression he loves the idea of owning a team.  He loves being at the park, etc. - but he doesn't have the passion for the game the way some owners might.  Maybe that's not fair.  I don't know the man.  That being said - over the years a picture of who he is has been painted for us and most of us wouldn't want to hang that painting on our wall. 
At the end of the day - it's his team.  He gets to do what he wants to do and it's all out of our control  I'm an Angels fan, but being a fan isn't the most important thing in my life.  It's not even close.  Baseball is supposed to be fun.  Angels baseball hasn't been much fun of late.  Thankfully, I have other things to do and focus on.  I keep my eyes on the Angels because when it is fun - it's real fun. 
My interest would probably be even less than it is right now if it wasn't for AW.  AW helps keep my interest in the game.  AW is a big part of my fandom now.  That's saying something.  That's a testimony to the work Chuck has done.
Players, coaches, GM's, broadcasters, etc. all come and go... but the AW faithful are here day in and day out.  That helps make baseball fun for me.
 

the reason it took so long for the Angels PR department to put out a statement is because they needed time to convince Shohei to stay with the team.  The dude was out.  He was never going to play again this season.  He was done and tired of the charade.  
He's pissed about something.  You don't bail on picture day and then clean out your locker without letting someone know if you're just riding out the season.  This doesn't feel like the typical behavior of a superstar impending free agent who's waiting for the season to end.  

It's the repeat tax, they don't want to pay.

Then they went full Angels.  You never go full Angels.  

We just got off sweeping a Judge-less Yankees team, took 2 of 3 from the Pirates and swept the Tigers. Not exactly what I would call running the gauntlet and not enough to warrant going all in at the trade deadline. Not to say they shouldn't have made any trades, just not ones involving your top prospects. They could have had Lorenzen for much cheaper.