Outside The Confines: Who wants to buy a baseball team?

$1.3 billion. That was the cost in 2018 when Jeffrey Loria sold the Miami Marlins to Derek Jeter and an ownership group investing with Jeter. It was a good investment, by the numbers, as Loria originally bought the team in 2002 for just under $160 million.

When Steve Cohen bought the Mets in 2020 he paid about $2.5 billion. That same year ownership of the Royals cost $1 billion. Billion with a B.

Those were the most recent sales of teams, and set a pretty good standard for what the market rate for a MLB club is going for right now. So this week when it was announced that the Angels’ owners, the Moreno family, were considering selling the club, everyone collectively started digging into their couch cushions. You can read the team’s statement below:

It will be interesting to see how this progresses, and whether or not it will be a group or business entity who buys the team (for example, Rogers Communications owns the Toronto Blue Jays) or just a really, really rich person. It will also be interesting to see how or if the sale impacts the team’s future decisions regarding superstar players like Shohei Ohtani and the ongoing bulky contract of Mike Trout.

Anyway, maybe if we all put a dollar in it could be the first fan-owned baseball team co-op. And just how much will that be? Well, Forbes estimates the team is worth about $2.2 billion, meaning the sale price could actually exceed that. Yikes. Might need to check a few more couches.

• Rhett Bollinger looks at the potential sale for MLB dot com.
• Nick Selbe writes about the sale for SI.
• Also worth noting that there are buyers out there on the market for the Nationals, shares Madison Williams.

Now on to the rest of today’s links!

• It’s very hard not to love Willy Adames.
• I hate to say nice things about two different NL Central players back to back, but Jay Jaffe looks at the renaissance of Albert Pujols.
• Adam Berry assesses the math behind the Rays’ rotation strategy.
• Max Scherzer is already getting ready for a postseason workload. Story by Tim Britton. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Superutility wonder John Wockenfuss passed away at age 73. Story by Jason Beck.
• Wait, how many runs?

• The Yankees seemed like an unstoppable force, now Jay Jaffe is wondering how they’ll get out of their current funk.
• Stephanie Apstein also writes about their present woes over at SI.
• However they did just sweep the subway series, and Bryan Hoch looks at Judge’s 48th home run of the season.
• Tyler Glasnow isn’t ruling out a potential return this season. (AP)
• Ken Rosenthal spotlights the evolution of Justin Verlander. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Y’know Kruk, I wouldn’t mind this.

• Is Cody Bellinger ever going to be good again? Dan Szymborski thinks the odds aren’t great.
• Fernando Tatis Jr apologized to Padres fans today. Story by AJ Cassavell.
• Everyone knows beer and hot dogs are a stadium staple, but together? Respectfully... absolutely not.

And tomorrow will be a better day, Buster. Make it so.