When Andy Pages erupted onto the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup to open the 2026 season, Angels fans were reminded — painfully — of a front-office decision that still rankles: owner Arte Moreno scuttling a near-complete trade in 2020 that would have brought Pages to Anaheim.
Pages, who quietly posted a 113 wRC+ during the 2025 regular season — the third-highest mark among the Dodgers’ qualified hitters — and swatted 27 home runs (second on the club only to Shohei Ohtani), began 2026 in fine form. He collected six hits in his first 18 plate appearances and posted an early-season wRC+ of 137, a rapid bounceback after what has been described as “historic” playoff struggles the previous autumn. For a player long regarded as having a standout hit tool in the Dodgers’ farm system, the opening-week surge underlined what scouts saw for years.
The upturn has revived memory of the trade that never was. Before the 2020 season, the Angels reportedly reached terms on a deal with the Dodgers that would have sent Pages to Anaheim. The proposed package, as described by those close to the negotiations at the time, would have included Dodgers veterans Joc Pederson and Ross Stripling coming to the Angels, with Los Angeles preparing to send Luis Rengifo and a prospect the other way. According to accounts circulating among fans and local media, the decision to halt the move came at the last minute when Moreno intervened.
Angels supporters have long speculated about Moreno’s motives; no official explanation was released in 2020, though some suggest the owner became impatient with the timeline of the paperwork or second-guessed the return. The renewed look at Pages’ early 2026 production has prompted social media commentary resurrecting that grievance — a tweet on April 1, 2026, summed up the sentiment succinctly: “If not for Arte Moreno, Andy Pages would be an Angel.” The comment typifies the mix of regret and anger that has followed Moreno’s tenure when potential prospects bloom elsewhere.
The timing of Pages’ breakout adds salt to the wound for a franchise that, entering 2026, has few clear long-term building blocks beyond its high-profile stars. Angels supporters argue that Pages — a left-handed hitter with above-average power and contact skills — could have filled a long-vacant role in Anaheim’s outfield plans, potentially reshaping roster construction and prospect development over subsequent seasons.
For Dodgers brass, Pages’ development vindicates the organization’s scouting and patience; for Angels fans it serves as a what-if. Whether Moreno’s intervention was an isolated misjudgment or emblematic of a pattern that has hindered roster improvement will continue to be debated in Orange County. For now, every timely Andy Pages hit for the Dodgers is likely to be met with another reminder of a trade that would have been — and the owner who stopped it.