Union head Tony Clark: Angels won't spend beyond luxury tax, treat it like a cap

New York Times

28-02-2025

TEMPE, Ariz. — The talk of the offseason has been the Dodgers and the implications of their historically high payroll. It is, however, the other Los Angeles team that is currently causing concern within the players union.
MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark told The Athletic in an interview this week that he believes the Angels, a team located in the nation's second-largest media market, are not willing to exceed the luxury tax threshold, unlike their big-city counterparts.
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'They have decided as an organization to treat it as a cap,' Clark said after meeting with Angels players this week. 'And are making decisions against that backdrop. It's unfortunate, particularly when they have an opportunity in the market that they are in.
'The way they've treated it and what it is are two different things.'
The Angels, in Clark's view, should be one of the sport's biggest spenders, alongside the nine teams that exceeded the tax last season. And unlike much lower-spending franchises, the Angels' spending habits highlight how teams can use the CBT as a line they simply won't cross. Exceeding the penalty for a season requires a team to pay a 20 percent tax on every dollar above the threshold.
Angels owner Arte Moreno declined to comment in response to Clark, though team spokesperson Marie Garvey pushed back against Clark's criticisms in a written statement.
'That's his opinion and we don't agree with it,' the statement said.
The Angels have only finished the season over the luxury tax once in Moreno's 22-year tenure as owner, and that was in 2004.
In 2023, the Angels appeared on track to exceed the tax, before feverishly making moves to get below the threshold. Doing so required placing six players on waivers, among other actions the team took.
The club's estimated payroll for 2025 is $202 million, up about $25 million from last year, but still well below the $241 million threshold.
During the collective bargaining negotiations in 2022, Moreno was one of just four owners who opposed any type of increase to the luxury tax, league sources said at the time. The league moved forward with proposing an increase regardless, and it eventually moved from $210 million to $230 million in the new CBA.
Even if they have avoided the tax, the Angels have been in the top half of the game's payroll in every year that Moreno has owned the team, and have regularly been in the top 10 in on-field spending.
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However, in recent years, those spending habits have dwindled and the losses have continued piling. The most expensive free-agent contract the team has added in the past five years came this offseason — a three-year, $63 million deal for Yusei Kikuchi.
The team is no longer seriously in the mix for any top-flight free agents. And it balked on matching the Dodgers' offer to Shohei Ohtani, who had spent his first six years with the Angels. The Angels own the sport's longest playoff drought, dating to 2014, and haven't won a postseason game since 2009.
'They've treated it the way they have,' Clark said, 'and it's hard to believe it hasn't had some effect on the level of success that they've had.'
The lack of spending has frustrated another superstar, Mike Trout, who openly called on the owner last spring to add more high-impact free agents.
'I'm doing everything I can possible,' Trout said. 'It's obviously Arte's decision. I'm going to put my two cents in there.'
When asked if he felt Moreno would heed his suggestion, there was less confidence.
'Um, you know, it's uh, yeah, no. You know how Arte is.'
All of this is a concern for the union as CBA contract negations are expected to become quite contentious after next season. In particular, it's expected that competitive balance in spending will be a major point of discussion.
The heightened conversation comes against the backdrop of the Dodgers' breakneck spending this offseason: adding numerous high-profile free agents, while keeping payroll at a relatively manageable $389 million through deferred contracts.
It's expected that owners will look to leverage the disparate payroll figures to argue for some sort of actual salary cap, and commissioner Rob Manfred didn't shy away from stating concerns on the topic.
'It's clear that we have fans in some markets that are concerned about the ability of the team in their market to compete with the financial resources of the Dodgers,' Manfred said at spring training media day earlier this month.
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The Angels, however, are not in a different market. They are in the same market as the Dodgers, though operating on a completely different level.
And for Clark, it's clear that the Angels' desire to remain below the luxury tax establishes a set strategy that goes against the union's stated purpose.
'In a world where teams are committed to putting the best teams on the field, using a part of the system as an excuse not to continue to push forward, yeah, we have those concerns,' Clark said.
'We're concerned about every team that isn't focused on (putting) the best team possible on the field. And using something as a cap that isn't a cap, that's not why that was designed.'