LOS ANGELES — The Angels last put up a winning record 10 years ago. I was looking for a reason to believe in the Angels, any reason.

There is a magazine called "Reason." The editor-at-large, Matt Welch, is an Angels diehard. In 1982, he slept in a Ford Pinto in the Big A parking lot, waiting for his chance to buy tickets for what would have been the first World Series in Angels history. He got the tickets, but the Angels blew a two-game lead in the American League Championship Series.

So, Mr. Reason, do you see a reason to believe in the Angels?

"Generally speaking, of course not," Welch said. "And also, because I'm an Angels fan, sure."

For an Angels fan, these are the worst of times. In six years in Anaheim, Shohei Ohtani never reached the postseason. In his first year with the Dodgers, Ohtani won the World Series.

Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs each project another losing season in Anaheim. Attendance has fallen 32% from its peak.

On Thursday — on Opening Day! — the state auditor's office is scheduled to release a report that could say whether the team has shirked its maintenance responsibilities at Angel Stadium.

On Friday, former Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu is expected to learn whether he will be sent to prison for four felony charges triggered by the public corruption investigation that derailed the city's sale of the stadium to Angels owner Arte Moreno. Neither an FBI affidavit nor Sidhu's plea agreement alleges any wrongdoing by the Angels.

On the field, the Angels appeared to spend another winter in their decade of self-imposed purgatory: no full rebuild and no all-in free-agent signings, with rosters patched with mid-tier veterans and lacking in depth, all with the upside of winning 80-something games and sneaking into the playoffs.

On one hand, it is admirable that Moreno chooses not to subject fans to years of rebuilding, and the possible run of 100-loss seasons that comes with it, even as so many other owners run that playbook and enjoy the profits that come with slashing the payroll. On the other hand, what Moreno has done has not worked, and the Angels still lost 99 games last season.

"As long as you have some young players that haven't fully developed but have shown some flashes of talent, they can vault ahead in a hurry," said Welch, the guy from Reason.

He was not alone in that opinion. I asked General Manager Perry Minasian why fans should believe in the Angels.

"Great question," Minasian said. "For me, with winning teams, it starts with a core. Now, we have a young core of players that we believe in, that we think are championship-caliber players."

The core is led by the two players with their faces on giant posters outside the front gate of Angel Stadium: shortstop Zach Neto and catcher Logan O'Hoppe.

Among other young position players: first baseman Nolan Schanuel, second baseman Christian Moore, outfielders Jo Adell and Nelson Rada.

On the pitching side: Reid Detmers, Jack Kochanowicz, José Soriano, Ben Joyce, Caden Dana, George Klassen and Sam Aldegheri.

On one side or the other: the No. 2 pick in the June draft.

If the Angels can hit on, say, half of those players — all 26 or younger — they can proceed with Plan A: In 2026, when oft-injured third baseman Anthony Rendon's $245-million contract expires, Minasian can reasonably suggest to Moreno the team is one or two players away from contention. Perhaps those two players might resemble the stars Moreno signed in his first winter as the Angels' owner: Vladimir Guerrero and Bartolo Colón.

If the Angels cannot hit on the majority of those prospects — and it would not be typical for a team to hit on so many — then back to purgatory they go.

In the meantime, we are 19 paragraphs into this column and finally getting to Mike Trout, the greatest player in franchise history. Trout can still play at a high level — he led the major leagues in home runs when he suffered a season-ending knee injury last year — but he has not played even 120 games in a season since 2019.

"As long as his presence is there, his performance will be there," Angels manager Ron Washington said.

Trout did not shy away from the premise that his playing 140 games could make the difference between an unexpected run at contention and another long and dreary summer.

"Oh yeah," he said. "Obviously, if I'm out there, it's definitely going to help the team for sure."

No Angel besides Trout and Ohtani has hit 30 home runs this decade. Trout has done it seven times in his 14-year career. Newcomer Jorge Soler has done it twice in his 11-year career; he hit 36 for the Miami Marlins in 2023.

Jered Weaver averaged 14 wins and 184 innings in 11 years with the Angels, the last in 2016. Since then, no pitcher has thrown 184 innings even once, and only Ohtani won as many as 14 games. He did it once. The Angels' starters last season posted a 4.97 earned-run average, the highest in the AL.

What should Angels fans expect from their team this season?

"I don't make any predictions," Minasian said. "I think they're going to see a team that plays extremely hard. I think they're going to see a lot of talented players. We'll see what happens."

On the day the Dodgers attracted more than 10,000 paying fans to a workout in Japan, the Angels drew a couple hundred for free pregame workouts ahead of a Cactus League game. It is not a fair comparison, of course. The Dodgers had Ohtani in his home country, the game's biggest star amid the team's constellation of superstars.

The Angels have Trout. Jaxson Keltner, 12, came from Ohio and held up a large poster board, upon which he had written: "I TRAVELED 1,914 MILES TO MEET MIKE TROUT."

Trout is the Angels' brand name. In baseball, a brand name is not enough. It would be improbable for the Angels to go from last to first in 2025. It would be enough to give their fans a reason to believe.

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