Mariners Face New AL West Threat After Angels Sale to Stan Kroenke

Seattle’s favorite divisional safety net may finally be disappearing.

Dec 7, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke in attendance against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Angels have been the AL West’s expensive cautionary tale for many years. This is a team that had Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani at the same time. They had a major market and an owner willing to write enormous checks. Somehow, they turned all of it into one postseason appearance since 2009 and zero playoff appearances since 2014.

That failure helped the Mariners in some ways. We may not enjoy saying it, but one division rival spent a decade removing itself from serious conversation. Seattle had its own problems. The Angels were usually background noise.

They may remain in the background for a little longer but they’re embarking on a change. Arte Moreno has agreed to sell a controlling interest in the Angels to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. The transaction still requires MLB approval and is expected to close during the first quarter of 2027. The parties didn’t announce financial terms, although multiple reports have placed the value at an MLB-record $4 billion.

The price makes Moreno much richer. Kroenke’s résumé should make Seattle pay attention.

Stan Kroenke’s Angels Deal Raises the Stakes for Mariners in AL West

Kroenke already owns the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids and Arsenal. All four have won championships in recent years. Baseball presents its own complications, but Kroenke at least knows what a functioning sports organization looks like. He knows the value of infrastructure, qualified executives and giving a team enough resources to chase something bigger than mediocrity.

The Angels have spent years getting in their own way. Moreno’s interference became a big part of the franchise identity. Big contracts flopped, front-office plans changed and two generational stars passed through Anaheim without winning a postseason game together. The organization’s longest-lasting skill was finding new ways to waste its investments and advantages.

Kroenke arrives with the money and track record to end that cycle. Even ordinary competence would make the Angels more dangerous. 

Mariners fans can look at John Stanton and ask some questions. The Mariners have built a more coherent operation than the one Moreno ran in Anaheim. The Mariners have an identity, a strong pitching-development program and a front office capable of finding value. Yet ownership still too often asks the baseball side to squeeze contention from narrow margins. Too many offseasons depend on internal improvement, precise trades and hoping everything breaks just right.

That approach becomes harder to defend when another wealthy division rival decides to take things more seriously.

Mariners Ownership Has Been Warned

The AL West already has Houston and Texas willing to spend aggressively. The A’s are gearing up to spend some cash when they get to Las Vegas. A revitalized Angels franchise would give Seattle one more opponent with the resources to punish teams with too much hesitation.

Kroenke may need years to repair the Angels, and his success in other sports guarantees nothing in MLB. The Mariners still cannot build their future around the expectation that Los Angeles will remain incompetent. That was a decent advantage while it lasted. It’s no longer a responsible assumption.