Logan O’Hoppe’s Promising Rookie Season May Be Over

Logan O’Hoppe has been one of the bright spots of the Angels’ up-and-down season, but unfortunately, the 23-year-old rookie catcher may have played his last game in 2023. On Sunday, the team revealed that O’Hoppe will need surgery to repair the torn labrum in his left shoulder, an injury that is expected to sideline him for four to six months.

The 23-year-old backstop first injured the shoulder while swinging the bat last Monday in Boston, but he remained in the game and played the next three as well. “It felt fine after it popped back in, in Boston,” he told reporters on Sunday, describing what sounds like a subluxation, not unlike what Fernando Tatis Jr. frequently experienced before undergoing surgery last September. “I mean, you hit three or four balls over 100 [mph], you think you’re fine,” he added.

Alas, O’Hoppe reaggravated the injury while hitting a single in the ninth inning of Thursday night’s 9–3 loss at Yankee Stadium. He fell down in obvious pain after hitting a hot smash down the third base line, recovered to run to first base on what otherwise would have been a double, then exited for a pinch-runner.

The Angels put O’Hoppe on the injured list on Friday, and by Sunday his season was in jeopardy. Only after he undergoes surgery on Tuesday will the prognosis be more clear, though for the moment he and the Angels have some optimism that a return in late August or September will be possible.

O’Hoppe has made a strong impression in his short time with the Angels. Drafted in the 23rd round out of a Long Island high school by the Phillies in 2018, he climbed as high as Triple-A Lehigh and was selected for the All-Star Futures Game last summer. With J.T. Realmuto entrenched behind the plate, the Phillies chose to deal O’Hoppe at the trade deadline, sending him to the Angels in exchange for Brandon Marsh. He immediately became the Halos’ top prospect, with Eric Longenhagen rating him as the fifth-best of all prospects among those who changed teams at the deadline and giving him a 50 FV: “Well-rounded everyday catching prospect who is a year or two away. A complete player with average tools.”

O’Hoppe placed 51st on our Top 100 Prospects list this spring but appeared ticketed for Triple-A Salt Lake City to start the year. Incumbent Max Stassi was slated to start, though he was coming off a rough season, having gone from a 104 wRC+ and 2.9 WAR in 2021 to a 63 wRC+ and 0.0 WAR in ’22. Versatile lefty-swinging Matt Thaiss, a 2016 first-round pick who had caught in college but took a detour to the infield corners that lasted until ’21, was expected to be the backup, particularly as he is out of options.

But in March, Stassi left the team due to what’s been described as an ongoing family emergency. Upon returning, he strained his left hip during a minor league exhibition and was placed on the IL to start the season, opening up a roster spot for O’Hoppe, who not only started on Opening Day but also did so for 15 of the team’s first 19 games, hitting .283/.339/.547 with four homers, a 141 wRC+, and a 12.8% barrel rate in 59 plate appearances. Among catchers with at least 50 PA, that wRC+ ranks fifth:

Those are all small samples, and O’Hoppe might not have been able to maintain that early clip, but via our Depth Charts projections, he was forecast to hit a hearty .246/.328/.420 (113 wRC+) for the remainder of the season. That projected wRC+ is 10th among catchers if you don’t count Daulton Varsho (who has yet to appear behind the plate this year) and Mitch Garver (who’s caught just three games). It’s not All-Star caliber by itself, but it’s production that’s not easily replaced.

What’s more, O’Hoppe’s 141 wRC+ ranks third on the team behind only Mike Trout (183) and Hunter Renfroe (145), with Shohei Ohtani (124) the only other Angel at 100 or better in more than 10 PA. That’s… not what the Angels were hoping for or expecting when they welcomed Anthony Rendon back from an injury-marred season and added Gio Urshela and Brandon Drury via free agency. With those three joining Trout, Ohtani, and Taylor Ward (137 wRC+ last year), this was supposed to be a deeper lineup with fewer holes than in previous years, but Ward has managed just an 86 wRC+, and Rendon has been even worse (.235/.344/.275. 80 wRC+). Urshela hasn’t been much better (.280/.308/.347, 83 wRC+), and Drury has been downright anemic (.211/.247/.380, 67 wRC+), though he homered twice agains the A’s on Monday night, helping him raise his wRC+ 41 points. The team does rank sixth in the AL with a 106 wRC+, up 13 points from last year, but the loss of O’Hoppe put that much more pressure on the underperformers to get their acts together.

As to how the Angels replace O’Hoppe, they’ve filled his roster spot by recalling 31-year-old Chad Wallach from Salt Lake City. He homered off Ryan Yarbrough in his first plate appearance of the season on April 21 and added another homer on Monday night, but he’s a career .202/.266/.320 (61 wRC+) hitter who’s never played more than 23 major league games in a season, so moments like those dingers are likely to be few and far between. Stassi has no timeline for return yet; at last report, he’s done some baseball activities, but the status of his family emergency isn’t public knowledge.

Thaiss hit .268/.364/.451 (104 wRC+) at Salt Lake City last year but just .217/.321/.319 (83 wRC+) in 81 PA with the Angels. He projects to be about league average at the plate (.220/.319/.371, 97 wRC+ rest of season); the question is whether his defense is strong enough behind it given his lack of major league experience (138 total innings). Both manager Phil Nevins and general manager Perry Minasian have taken the glass-half-full approach regarding the Wallach/Thaiss tandem. Via The Athletic’s Sam Blum:

“I like where we’re at behind the plate,” Nevin said. “I’m confident in those guys. These pitchers have all thrown to them. We’re in a good place there.”

“I feel good about, obviously, what we currently have,” said Angels GM Perry Minasian. “Matt’s developing. He’s getting better every day. Chad’s been there and done that.”

Within the organization, both Salt Lake City catchers — 28-year-old Chris Okey and 25-year-old Anthony Mulrine — are light-hitting non-prospects in the Wallach mode with career minor league OPSes of .611 and .609, respectively. Okey played seven games with the Reds last year but was released in September. Of more interest is 20-year-old Cuban-born switch hitter Edgar Quero, who placed 80th on the Top 100 and is another 50 FV prospect. He’s a bat-first player with an accurate arm and the makings of viable defense, but he’s unpolished behind the plate, as you might expect from a player who spent all of last year in the California League and moved up to Double-A Rocket City this year. He’s hitting .385/.529/.538 in 39 PA and went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs in the infamous no-hitter that the Trash Pandas lost. With progress, he might become an option later in the season.

All of which suggests the Angels could use help from outside the organization, but it’s unlikely they’ll wind up with an impact player via that route. Robinson Chirinos is the lone unsigned major league free agent, but he’s 39 and coming off a .179/.265/.287 showing in 220 PA with the Orioles last year. Gary Sanchez, whom the team explored signing this past offseason, is playing for the Giants’ Triple-A Sacramento affiliate but has a May 1 opt-out if he’s not on the major league roster. Austin Wynns, whom the Giants designated for assignment when they activated Joey Bart, cleared waivers and became a free agent earlier this month; he may soon face the same fate from the Dodgers, who signed him in order to patch the roster while Will Smith recovers from a concussion.

As for O’Hoppe, the good news is that the injury is to his non-throwing shoulder, but because he bats left-handed right-handed, that’s his lead shoulder as a hitter, which could cost him power. The jury is still out with regards to Tatis, but numerous hitters such as Cody Bellinger, Greg Bird, Matt Kemp, and Devin Mesoraco (a catcher) had their careers altered by labrum injuries to their non-throwing shoulders; Jeff Zimmerman did a Tatis-flavored roundup here but lumped throwing and non-throwing injuries together and appears to have misclassified Bellinger.

Speaking from personal experience, labrum injuries to either shoulder are a huge bummer. Here’s hoping O’Hoppe makes a speedy and strong recovery from his.