The going gets worse for the Angels.
The Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 on Tuesday, taking a 1-0 lead in the American League Wild Card matchup.
More importantly than the win itself, though, was the history that came with it.
For the Twins, it was their first postseason win in 19 years, with their last playoff win coming in 2004 in the ALDS. While that’s great news for Minnesota and its fans, it turned out to be not so great news to the Angels and their fans.
Since the Twins’ most recent postseason win has now come in 2023, the team with the longest winless postseason drought in baseball is none other than the Los Angeles Angels.
Their last postseason win came in 2009, which is also the year Mike Trout was drafted.
The Angels haven’t made the postseason since 2014, but got swept in that short series with the Kansas City Royals. Since then, it’s been a lot of losing.
Despite boasting the MLB’s best player of the 2010s in Trout, and adding baseball’s best player of the last few years, Shohei Ohtani, the Halos just haven’t been able to play winning baseball.
The team had hope in 2023, but their post-trade deadline collapse put an end to an overall disappointing 2023 campaign, one that could spell the end of the Ohtani era in Anaheim.
Angels general manager Perry Minasian spoke to the media on Tuesday, and said the team would not be rebuilding in 2024, and will look to put together a winner. With Ohtani likely on his way out, and the inability for the high-paid Trout and Anthony Rendon to stay healthy, it could be difficult to make that dream a reality in 2024.
You never want to say never, but at this moment, it doesn’t feel like Anaheim’s postseason drought is going to end anytime soon.
