Moreno Ready to Be Major Player

As another sellout crowd rocked Edison Field on Sunday, with fans joyfully waving red T-shirts that commemorated the Angels’ record attendance, Arte Moreno vowed to keep the party going next year.

As the Angels wrapped up a tremendously disappointing season with a 4-1 victory over the Texas Rangers, their owner pledged to play with the big boys. Moreno projected a $90-million payroll next season, which would make the Angels among the top spenders in the major leagues.

With Barry Wesson hitting his first major league home run and Scot Shields, Francisco Rodriguez and Brendan Donnelly combining on a six-hitter, the Angels officially headed into the off-season with excitement in Anaheim and nervous anticipation elsewhere around the American League.

The Angels finished 19 games out of first place in the AL West and 18 games behind in the wild-card race, the first team since the 1998 Florida Marlins to miss the playoffs the year after winning the World Series. Under Moreno, who bought the franchise in May, the Angels will be active in free agency on a scale unseen since they courted Mo Vaughn and Randy Johnson five years ago.

“It’s going to be an eventful off-season,” pitcher Jarrod Washburn said. “Hopefully, some people will decide they like what they see and want to come here. And it sends a great message to the guys in here, that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win.”

That message also was heard in the clubhouse of the last-place Rangers.

“It’s going to be hard dealing with the Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Mariners,” Texas shortstop Alex Rodriguez told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “and ... Arturo Moreno, it seems like he’s going to do some crazy things.”

Moreno won’t sign anyone to a $252-million contract, as Ranger owner Tom Hicks did with Rodriguez. But he will invest in a free-agent class expected to include stars in Montreal right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, Chicago White Sox pitcher Bartolo Colon and Oakland shortstop Miguel Tejada. Moreno, while mindful of major league tampering rules, acknowledged that Tejada initiated a little chat recently, when the two men happened to be in the same Anaheim restaurant.

“If you’re in the bar and Tejada walks over and says hello,” Moreno said, “you’re not going to say hello?”

A $90-million payroll does not guarantee success. Of the six teams above $90 million this season, the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves made the playoffs. The Dodgers, Rangers and New York Mets did not.

Still, the Angels will have salary room to add free agents and enhance the contract of left fielder Garret Anderson too. The Angels have committed $54 million next season to seven players -- Anderson, outfielders Darin Erstad and Tim Salmon, catcher Bengie Molina and pitchers Troy Percival, Ramon Ortiz and Aaron Sele. For another $13 million, the Angels can retain nine more -- Shields, Rodriguez, Donnelly, Washburn, infielders Adam Kennedy and David Eckstein, outfielder Chone Figgins and pitchers John Lackey and Derrick Turnbow.

Moreno said he expects to lose $7 million this year and $12 to $14 million next year before reversing financial course.

Former owner Jackie Autry often called the Angels a middle-market, middle-revenue team. Moreno disagrees, citing the 3 million in attendance -- “we’re going to do it again,” he said -- and the media and advertising opportunities available in the second-largest market in the country.

“I don’t understand why people don’t understand that,” Moreno said. “This is baseball heaven.”