The Angels are heading into a rare kind of offseason: one defined less by a roster question than by an ownership reset. On Tuesday, Mike Trout learned the franchise would have a new controlling owner in Stan Kroenke, who bought a controlling share of the team at a $4 billion valuation. For a club that has lived through 12 consecutive losing seasons and baseball’s longest playoff drought, that is not a small development. It is a structural one.
Trout, who has spent 16 seasons under Arte Moreno, called the move a fresh start and acknowledged the significance of the change. He also pointed to Kroenke’s track record, saying, “What a track record” and, “Wherever he buys, he wins.” That is the hope attached to almost any ownership change, but for Angels baseball it carries extra weight because the franchise has spent years trying to outrun a familiar problem: good players, big expectations and too little sustained winning.
Why this sale matters
The deal is also notable because it extends beyond the field. The sale includes the team-owned television and radio outlets, ABTV and AM 830, which gives the new ownership group more control over the franchise’s broader business identity. In a sport where revenue streams can shape competitive windows, that detail matters as much as the headline price.
That price, $4 billion, reflects how valuable major-league franchises have become, even for teams that have not recently matched that value with results. Back in 2009, put Arte Moreno on its magazine cover and said the Angels delivered the best value of the then-122 teams across the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball. The current reality is far less flattering: the Angels have not just struggled, they have endured a long stretch of frustration that has worn down patience inside and outside the stadium.
The chants made that clear. Fans regularly called for the club to “Sell the Team!” this season, and Molly Jolly said Kroenke was aware of that pressure. “He’s aware of the chants,” she said. “He knows about them. At the end of the day, this is about having the right next owner more than it is about anything else.” That is the heart of the story now. The public noise mattered, but the franchise was ultimately waiting for the right conversation, the right fit and, as Jolly put it, the right person having the right conversation.
Jolly also described Kroenke as having “a traditional sense about him,” adding that talking baseball and the franchise “resonates for how he thinks and looks at things, rather than it being a complex conversation.” That helps explain why this move happened when it did. In 2022, Moreno invited bids and then decided not to sell the Angels, but the door never fully disappeared. By April, Jolly had assumed the team presidency. By July, John Mozeliak had joined as interim general manager and later said Moreno had mentioned a sale was a possibility. On Tuesday, possibility became reality.
There is still one important timing note: the sale is not expected to be finalized until early next year. So the Angels are not suddenly finished with the past, and they are not instantly transformed into a contender. But ownership changes rarely work that neatly. What they can do is reset expectations, alter the tone of the organization and create the possibility of something better.
For a franchise with 12 straight losing seasons, that alone is meaningful. The Angels do not need another slogan. They need a new direction. Now they have one.
