The Angels had every opportunity. 

Through all the clichéd platitudes offered by Shohei Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, on Thursday afternoon, that one line stood out.

“The Angels had every opportunity.”

The comment was about the team’s alleged Ohtani pursuit. He’d spent the last six years donning their uniform, and now, Balelo put it on record that they were willing to listen if the Angels made a credible case for Ohtani’s return.

“The Angels are special to Shohei,” Balelo said. “He was there for the last six years. … It’a place he really loved to play.”

That line, “The Angels had every opportunity” sticks out like the team’s gaudy decade of losing. A line that transcends Arte Moreno’s decision to not match the Dodgers’ 10-year, $700 million offer.

The team had every opportunity to make Ohtani a competitive offer. They had every opportunity to trade him if they didn’t intend to pay him. They had every opportunity to put a competent team on the field alongside the two-way superstar.

The Angels have had nothing but opportunities. Every time, those opportunities are missed, bungled or downright ignored. The past six years have been a showcase in blowing an all-time chance. It should be no surprise that this played out the way it did.

This franchise and its owner have officially lost all credibility with a diehard fan base that deserves so much better.

“I have been a fan of this team since I was a baby,” said Sebastian Romero, a spectator who watched the team tear down Ohtani’s mural on Saturday. “For over a decade now, we’ve seen nothing but incompetence. It’s resulted in disappointing season after disappointing season.”

A lack of transparency has only compounded the incompetence that has led the organization to this moment. The Angels declined to comment on their decision not to match the Dodgers. When pressed directly during a Friday press conference, Angels GM Perry Minasian answered the way he always does.

“I don’t discuss negotiations,” Minasian said. “I’ve said that since Day 1, when I arrived.”

Television analyst and team consultant Bobby Valentine is the most public-facing team employee to say anything. He went on the New York Post’s baseball podcast and discussed the organizational thought process.

This team spent the past three seasons building their entire brand around Ohtani’s presence, capitalizing on his global recognizability in a multitude of ways. His departure cannot be met with silence. An explanation and pledge/plan to get better are all that suffice.

To not comment is an insult to a fan base that has attended Angels games in dwindling numbers the past two seasons. The ones that still show up are owed more.

Instead, when asked if Angels ownership would commit the resources to building a better roster, Minasian again chose a canned answer.

“Since Day 1, this is a group that wants to win,” Minasian said. “Financially, what ownership has committed over the years says that.”

It may be that Angels ownership wants to win. But wanting to win means nothing. The Angels are asking you for more blind trust, but have earned none of it.

We’ve detailed the limited resources going to scouting, infrastructure, player development and even broadcasting. We’ve told you about how poorly the team treated its minor-league players. We’ve covered the various scandals and off-field dramas. We’ve written about poor spring training facilities.

Their payroll, while in the upper echelon of the league, is seemingly capped below the luxury tax threshold. Not nearly enough to make up for the franchise’s deficiencies.

At every opportunity to do better, it seems that this team balks. They continue to believe that the losing is a result of bad luck and misfortune. There’s enough evidence to show that it’s not.

Look no further than the Angels’ fumbling of Ohtani’s free agency. Moreno had to know that his price tag would be significant. Of course he would be competing against the richest clubs in baseball for the sport’s premier star.

It’s one thing for Ohtani to spurn his former team with a comparable offer. But that’s not what happened here.

If Moreno wasn’t willing to pay Ohtani what it took — a deal that would have been fair and reasonable for the Angels — then Ohtani should have been traded at some point over the past two seasons.

“There’s zero regrets,” Minasian said when asked why he wasn’t traded over that timeframe.

Trading Ohtani might have actually helped in the effort to build a sustainable winner. It seems they were more inclined to milk every second they could out of his presence in Anaheim. Once that ended, they closed their eyes and hoped for the best. It’s what the Angels always do, and it ignores the actual cost and process of how winning is built.

Now, they’re left with no Ohtani, none of the prospects he could have netted and no sustainable source of wins.

The Angels fan base is ready to move on from Ohtani talk, and no one should blame them. It’s been an exhausting week. Watching a rival franchise parade their one-time hero around is probably nauseating.

The fans who live and die with this team are desperate to see change. They want to know what happens next, and that is fair.

But don’t get it twisted. What happened here, with Ohtani, reflects an organization that does not have a structured plan for what comes next. It is impossible to remove the immediate past from the immediate future.

Despite all of that, the Angels sit here with an opportunity to fix that. They have a strong young core of players. A good mix of veterans. A bona fide superstar. And a proven manager with some good coaches working behind him.

As is always the case with this team, if you look closely enough, you can spot a winner. Maybe the Angels will improve this offseason. Minasian is dead set on doing so, and should get credit if and when it happens. This is, again, an opportunity. Which by definition, is something the Angels can capitalize on.

The only issue? This franchise has given no reason to believe they’ll make anything of it.

(Top photo of Minasian, Ohtani and Moreno: John McCoy/Getty Images)