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DALLAS (AP) - Just 12 months ago, Angels owner Arte Moreno, having whiffed on Carl Crawford the same way he whiffed on Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and Paul Konerko, decried the illogic of high-stakes free agency for a team already carrying a $121 million payroll then.
"You commit $20 million-plus for seven years to one player, you get to a place where, automatically, you're going to take the payroll to $150 million," Moreno said then, "and it just doesn't give you a lot of room. We knew if we add $20 million, it was going to be red ink."
And then this from him on Crawford money: "There were rumors out there, but we never made an official offer, and no parameters were discussed. It's crazy. I paid [$183 million] for the team [in 2003] and now we're talking $142 million for one player? Seven years on a player is a huge risk financially."
Twelve months later -- his payroll swollen to $141 million -- Moreno went all in at the biggest baccarat table in free agency: the Albert Pujols table. Moreno shocked baseball by jumping in late and large to sign Pujols to a 10-year contract worth about $250 million, a development first reported by Yahoo! Sports. Moreno sweetened the deal with a full no-trade clause.
Forget the Crawford money he couldn't stomach last year. This is way bigger. Even while trying to sign pitcher C.J. Wilson -- which he later did, to a reported five-year, $77 million deal -- Moreno suddenly found the stomach to go 10 years, not seven.
What happened?
• The Rangers, their AL West rival, have become an elite team that is not going away -- they are the Yankees to their Red Sox.
• The Dodgers, who under Frank McCourt essentially forfeited ground in Moreno's quest to make Los Angeles his own, are now an awakening giant. Somebody with money -- lots of it, considering a sale price that might exceed $1 billion -- is going to buy the team. That kind of well-funded shark is not going to forfeit any more ground. The Dodgers quickly will become a threat.
• The Angels are entering the sixth year of a 10-year local TV deal that pays them $50 million a year; they can begin to position themselves for more. (Strangely, the Dodgers and Angels have the worst local TV ratings in baseball.)
• The Angels have $27.5 million coming available after next season with the expiration of the contracts of Torii Hunter and Bobby Abreu.
• The Angels missed the postseason for a second straight year for the first time since Moreno bought the team in 2003. The Angels have won one playoff series in the past six years. Moreno does not like to lose.
Times and circumstances change. Moreno saw a chance to get an iconic player who, because of his age and body type, makes far more sense for an AL team than an NL team over the next 10 years. Even before he becomes a full-time DH, Pujols can extend his prime by occasionally taking "half days off" as a DH -- keeping his bat in the lineup and his assault on career baseball records intact. What seemed foolish 12 months ago now is a whole new world for Moreno and the Angels.
On July 13, Francisco Rodriguez gave up the chance to vest a $17.5 million option for the 2012 season. As a condition of his trade from the Mets to the Brewers, he converted that vesting option into a mutual option, one Milwaukee was not going to pick up. The idea was that he could pitch in a pennant race and that multi-year riches awaited him on the free agent market after a fine season.
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