How could a Halos sale affect Trout, Ohtani?

This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger's Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. PETERSBURG -- It was a huge news day for the Angels on Tuesday, as owner Arte Moreno announced he’s looking into the possibility of selling the club.

Moreno, who bought the Angels in 2003 for $184 million, announced the Angels have retained Galatioto Sports Partners as financial advisors. He also released a statement regarding the situation.

“It has been a great honor and privilege to own the Angels for 20 seasons,” Moreno said. “As an organization, we have worked to provide our fans an affordable and family-friendly ballpark experience while fielding competitive lineups, which included some of the game’s all-time greatest players.”

“Although this difficult decision was entirely our choice and deserved a great deal of thoughtful consideration, my family and I have ultimately come to the conclusion that now is the time. Throughout this process, we will continue to run the franchise in the best interest of our fans, employees, players and business partners.”

The Angels have won six division titles under Moreno but none since 2014. And the club is headed toward yet another losing season, as the Angels haven’t had a winning record since 2015, which is the longest such streak in the Majors.

The Angels have had that lack of success despite having superstars such as Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on the roster. The potential sale of the Angels shouldn’t affect Trout, who signed a 12-year, $426.5 million extension before the 2019 season. Trout is under contract through 2030 and has a full no-trade clause.

But it does have the chance of affecting Ohtani’s future with the club, as he’s set to be a free agent after next season. The Angels don’t seem intent on trading Ohtani with Moreno as owner and it’s unclear whether a new owner would have a different opinion on Ohtani signing an extension with the club. Ohtani has said the most important thing to him is winning and a new owner could bring a new direction that excites Ohtani.

It's unclear, however, how long a possible sale will take and who would be an interested buyer. There have been estimates it could happen as soon as this offseason, or it could take a year or possibly longer to complete. The last MLB club to be sold was the Mets in 2020 to Steve Cohen for roughly $2.4 billion. The Angels are estimated to be worth $2.2 billion, per Forbes.

The timeline will certainly be worth monitoring, as it has a huge impact on the franchise in both the short term and long term.