Angels' Future: Is It Time to Move On from Mike Trout?
Grant Nola and John Browner discuss the future of the Los Angeles Angels, Mike Trout's potential next move, and the excitement for a new era with Kroeneke.
Video Transcript
When it comes to this organization, is it because something new is happening, something fresh is coming in?
Do you think it's time to move on from Mike Trout?
Ooh, good question.
Man, honestly, it's something that you're gonna have to think of because if you wanna rebuild, why not try to do it with younger players, right?
But it's gonna be up to Mike Trout, right?
I've been thinking for years that, hey, maybe you should go somewhere else, but you guys talked about it earlier, Orange County is a beautiful- place to live, right?
Why would you want to leave there?
I don't know where Ohtani lives right now, but I'm pretty sure he probably kept some type of property in Orange County because it's just that beautiful.
They're a local casino probably.
Hey, yeah, you're right.
But yeah, it's just a beautiful place to be, so it's, it's hard for Mike Trout to just up and leave that, and he's truly the face of the franchise.
But it's something that is gonna have to be discussed, but it's just a great moment to move on from Artey, and have this group come in because it's just giving you a bright future.
It's giving, giving you something to look forward to.
As a, you know, a- an Angel fan, it's just been tough to watch and follow because it's like, it's like there's no effort that was given, to the team from the ownership group.
But now you notice somebody that's about winning.
Hell, we might even get Sean McVay to come over there somehow some way, just because, you know, he can teach them something- He'd throw the first pitch about, about winning.
So it, it's just fun times for Angel fans.
No more just watching the Dodgers being great.
Eventually, the time is coming for the Angels to fly once again.
Mikeel, what do you think happened after 2014?
Because I, I mentioned this in the first segment, is that they got guys, they were paying guys a lot of money.
I mean, they were throwing money at Josh Hamilton, and see, obviously none of those guys panned out.
But I'm saying they were willing to pay, and now all of a sudden it's just like, "Nah, we're good, man."
Since 2014, it's just like, "Eh, we don't need to pay anybody."
Yeah.
What do you, why do you think that is?
Why do you think ownership did that?
Because in 2014, they almost won 100 games.
They were awesome that year.
Yeah.
And they got swept by the Royals in the first round.
But since then, they haven't made the playoffs, but I'm thinking like, they haven't really tried to spend.
I mean, they got Shohei, and they kinda extended him like one year, one year, but they weren't even willing to give him the 10 for 700 that he was getting from other team.
Why do you think the front office did that?
Like, why did the front office just say, "Nah, we're good now"?
I just think that after the years of trying, right, you, you bring in Ohtani, you see the talent that he is.
You see how great Mike Trout, became.
You had Albert Pujols.
I- they just got just stable.
Like, they, they were content, right?
They're like, "Hey, we won't be the Dodgers.
I, I, I own this team.
I think that it, it is a cool thing."
And it kinda reminds me of what's going on with the Los Angeles Sparks right now.
Just people that, that were just content and really wasn't as hands-on as you need to be to be successful, especially being in Southern California.
So I think that that's what kinda happening.
They got a little lazy there thinking that, "Hey, we're, we're in a beautiful place.
People should wanna come play with us."
But it's not just about that.
How are you building your farm system, right, and getting the right players that fit?
And it just had, it was just a bad juju around the, the team.
You had some untimely deaths and things like that.
So that's why a fresh restart is just something that the team needed, the area needed when it came to Angel baseball.
So it is about that time, and I'm happy that today was the start of something new.
Here's a question that I think will be the only roadblock for Ar- for, for, the purchaser- Mm-hmm Stan Kroenke.
If, and I want, I wanna try to make this super quick as, as well as I can until you can answer this question.
Because there's no salary cap as of now, this is unlike anything else he owns.
Yes.
So if the only thing that I think that could get in the way of this is if they do not get a salary cap implemented on this new deal.
What do you think about that?
No, yeah, that's gonna be a, a big thing, so we're gonna have to wait and see that.
But it starts with the farm system, right?
You gotta get the right people around your team to build a winner, and I think that, you know, Stan Kroenke is gonna do that, put the right people in the right places to make this team become successful, starting there in the farm system.
And then going out, and now people, free agents can believe that this is a ownership group that really wants to win, that we've seen win in other sports.
So now you just have something to believe in.
And you see it with the Dodgers.
When you just have something that you can believe in, people are willing to, you know, maybe take a pay cut or leave a team to go and join them.
So I think that belief system in this new group is gonna allow the Angels to grow the way that they need to.
