Elephant Rumblings: Moreno not selling Angels

Welcome to Tuesday, everyone!

In some non-A’s related news, Angels owner Arte Moreno has decided NOT to sell the team, taking the club off the market and instead shutting down the “exploratory process” on the whole thing.

“During this process, it became clear that we have unfinished business and feel we can make a positive impact on the future of the team and the fan experience,” owner Arte Moreno said in a statement. “This offseason, we committed to a franchise-record player payroll and still want to accomplish our goal of bringing a World Series championship back to our fans. We are excited about this next chapter of Angels baseball.”

A’s fans can breathe a sigh of relief as this means that Golden State Warriors owner (and possible future buyer of the A’s?) Joe Lacob won’t be taking his free-spending ways to a division rival. Instead, Moreno, who has owned the team since 2003, will continue for the foreseeable future to head the franchise.

Moreno has been more involved in the dealings of the team than a lot of owners, often for the worse. He personally (and infamously) went around the front office and made the deal with outfielder Josh Hamilton that ended up backfiring on the club, and has generally neglected the pitching side of his team for some time now. He did finally invest in that area a bit this offseason when he signed Tyler Anderson, but that might not be enough.

A’s coverage:

Adams: Sorting through Athletics’ rotation options

Kornheiser and Wilbon remember Sal Bando

Diaz could be ready for a breakout

MLB News and interest:

Hall of Fame election results announced today

Franco: Twins acquire Michael A. Taylor

Mayo: Top 3B Prospects heading into 2023

McDonald: Hill withdraws name from Astros’ GM search

Today in baseball history

Best of Twitter:

A couple minor moves down on the farm…

And the A’s family got a little smaller today with the sad passing of Kyle Ellington…

Fingers crossed, Casey