DENVER — Logan O’Hoppe is eager to put this season behind him and return as a new man next year.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m being a huge advocate for big things to come, but I do know I’m going to show up to spring training in a much better headspace,” the Angels catcher said. “Just looking forward to getting back to being myself.”
O’Hoppe, 25, has been considered a member of Angels’ core that they hope will get them back to contention. This season that stature took a hit, though. O’Hoppe is hitting .215 with a .638 OPS and 19 home runs, including just two homers and six RBIs since June 22.
Defensively, he’s ranked in the bottom 10% in the majors in blocking and framing, according to Baseball Savant. He’s gone back and forth between catching with a traditional stance and using the more modern one-knee-down style.
All of this coming after he slumped badly for most of the last months of the 2024 season has raised the question of whether O’Hoppe is going to be as good as expected.
He said he has a plan to reverse the trajectory of his career, and it starts with an attitude.
“I completely lost my identity on the field,” O’Hoppe said. “That’s been a year-and-a-half process.”
O’Hoppe said he allowed himself to be influenced by many people – not necessarily all within the Angels organization, he insists – who led him to try things that weren’t helpful.
“It’s more getting back to what I was doing that got me to this point, because I got away from that past year and a half, that’s my fault,” O’Hoppe said. “At the end of the day, that’s nobody else’s fault. It was my choice to do certain things a certain way, or to listen to certain people that I did.”
One of the issues, he said, is that he was advised to cut back on his workload in the wake of his 2023 shoulder surgery, in the interest of preserving his health.
O’Hoppe said he decided to “do a little bit less, take a couple less swings in the cage, throw a little less, shorten my workouts a little bit, because that’s going to, quote-unquote, save my body. What I’ve learned is that may have saved my body – I’ve never felt better in September as I do right now – but my mind paid for the price for that more than anything.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to doing it how I need to do it, because that’s when I’m at my best. I’m at my best when I’m pushing it almost too much. I have a better understanding of how to recover now and take care of my body, and I’m looking forward to putting that into action.”
O’Hoppe said he’s going to spend the winter focusing on the people who he knows have led him to do what’s made him successful.
“There’s a lot of I’ve got to get right in this offseason, with my swing, my catching, but most important, becoming convicted in it again,” O’Hoppe said. “Listening to the guy between my ears at the end of the day. I think that’s really important. They’re pretty valuable lessons. I wish it didn’t take as long as they did to learn them, but I’m at the point where I’m going to give everything I have to this last week and a half, and then I’m looking forward to getting back home where I’m around the people that love me, the people that care about me unconditionally, and looking to get back to being who I know I’m capable of being.”
KIKUCHI’S FRUSTRATION
Interim manager Ray Montgomery said he was fine with Yusei Kikuchi expressing his frustration about what he felt was a quick hook in the sixth inning of Thursday’s game.
Montgomery said he talked to Kikuchi about his comments.
“I said, ‘if I’d have taken you out of the game and you weren’t upset, I would be more concerned about that than being removed from the game, which you felt like you should have stayed in,’” Montgomery said on Friday. “We had a conversation about it. He certainly understands where I was coming from. Those decisions can be questioned all the time.”
Kikuchi was pulled with the Angels leading 2-1, and they lost, 5-2.
“All year I’ve been grinding for the team,” Kikuchi said through his interpreter after Thursday’s game. “So in that spot, I wanted to be trusted a little bit more and I felt like I wasn’t trusted in that moment.”
NOTES
First baseman Nolan Schanuel returned to the lineup after missing nearly four weeks with a bone bruise in his wrist. “I’ve never had an injury like that before, and when I think of a bone bruise, I think it was just a bruise, and I didn’t really think it was gonna be that serious,” Schanuel said. “And I tried to come back on that 10th or 11th day, and it wasn’t feeling any better, so I kind of had to take a step back to take a step forward. Stop swinging. The time definitely helped heal it.” …
The Angels optioned first baseman Logan Davidson to open a spot for Schanuel. …
Closer Kenley Jansen is not in Colorado. He’s skipped series here in the past because the high altitude can be dangerous for him because of his heart condition. The Angels are playing short for this series because there’s no rule that allows for a player to be replaced under these circumstances.
UP NEXT
Angels (RHP Kyle Hendricks, 7-10, 5.01 ERA) at Rockies (RHP German Marquez, 3-14, 6.65), Saturday, 5:10 p.m. PT, FDSN West, 830 AM