Trade comes down to World Series or bust for Angels

The World Series starts Oct. 22 at Angel Stadium. Or else.

The Angels usually speak softly, without carrying a big stick. They got the big stick Tuesday, and they’re not shy about telling you why.

“We’re in it to win a world championship,” General Manager Tony Reagins said.

Talk isn’t cheap, not this time. As the Angels paid dearly to acquire Mark Teixeira from the Atlanta Braves, shocking fans accustomed to Team Halo standing pat in July and flaming out in October, Teixeira talked the talk as well.

This is not one of those trades where we have to wait two or three years to determine whether the Angels won. We’ll know in three months.

“A World Series, for me, would make this trade successful,” Teixeira said.

For you, for your general manager, for your owner. These were the words of Arte Moreno 10 days ago: “I don’t see anyone that can come in here for two months and hand me a World Series trophy.”

We left a message with a team spokesman asking Moreno to explain what changed, what persuaded him to approve the trade despite his aversion to rental players.

In three months, after all, the Angels could be left with no Teixeira, no Casey Kotchman and no World Series trophy. Kotchman will be good, for a good long time.

Moreno did not get back to us, but Reagins said it all. The Angels won the World Series in 2002, in the final season before Disney sold the team to Moreno, energizing a fan base that Moreno has dramatically enlarged.

The Angels won the American League West three times in 42 seasons before Moreno, then three times in five seasons under Moreno. But they are 4-12 in the playoffs during that span, including seven consecutive postseason losses.

In the playoffs, the Angels have gone 171 at-bats without a home run, covering 48 innings, all with Vladimir Guerrero. In the 2002 World Series, without Guerrero, the Angels hit seven home runs in 60 innings.

Guerrero never has played a season in which a teammate hit 30 home runs. Teixeira is on pace to do so for the fifth consecutive season, and so the Angels finally have a dynamic duo to counter David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez in October.

And, make no mistake, this trade is about October. The Angels have all but clinched the AL West, with a lead of 11 1/2 games. They could get into the playoffs with Maicer Izturis batting third.

Teixeira could be this year’s Carlos Beltran, in more ways than one. Beltran never had appeared in the playoffs when the Houston Astros acquired him four years ago, but he positioned himself for a free-agent jackpot by hitting .435 with eight home runs in 12 postseason games.

The starting price for Beltran that fall was $200 million. He signed with the New York Mets for $119 million.

The starting price for Teixeira this fall figures to be $200 million, so we’ll see. Scott Boras, his agent, no doubt will try to persuade Moreno that Teixeira could be the star of an Angels’ cable television channel, the key to stamping the Angels’ footprint deep into Dodgers territory.

Reagins all but planted a big red flag in that territory anyway, amid all the Teixeira euphoria.

“Our goal is to win a world championship, to bring a world championship back to the fans of Southern California,” Reagins said, “and across the nation.”

If the Angels don’t win in October, they could feel mighty hollow in November, with pounding headaches from contract negotiations.

They could be bidding for Teixeira against the Mets, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and his hometown Baltimore Orioles.

They’ll let Francisco Rodriguez test the market and might not make him an offer, but they figure to propose extensions to Guerrero and John Lackey, each of whom could otherwise file for free agency after the 2009 season. And they’ll face the delicate matter of deciding whether to invite franchise icon Garret Anderson to return -- perhaps with a pay cut, perhaps not at all.

For the Angels, those matters are best left for November. The World Series comes first, or else.

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com