ANAHEIM — Logan O’Hoppe may finally have hit rock bottom a few weeks ago.
Mired in what had been a second straight miserable month to start the season, the Angels catcher had something of an epiphany.
“I hit a point where I’m not dumb, I know what’s going on,” O’Hoppe said on Saturday. “I see the writing on the wall.”
O’Hoppe said he was haunted by the thought that each day his roster spot was tenuous.
“You come to games thinking you’re going to get sent down,” O’Hoppe said. “I know that things happen like that. It made sense when I was not playing well. I still have to prove it. It’s not like I’m going to be up here forever. I have to prove it every day. But that’s the writing on the wall that I’m talking about.”
O’Hoppe said he committed to do whatever it took to turn things around, even staying in the batting cage until past midnight.
“I don’t care if I have to get the key and lock the place up,” O’Hoppe said. “I’m taking that approach forward. And it’s helped my peace of mind more than it has physically.”
The week of the Angels homestand against the A’s and Texas Rangers was when he began making significant changes to his defense. So far his framing numbers have improved slightly.
At the plate, it took O’Hoppe another week to come up with what he feels was the key change.
O’Hoppe said he developed a pregame hitting routine when he was a 19-year-old playing winter ball in Australia, and he had gotten away from that the deeper he got into pro baseball.
“It’s a pretty one-to-one ratio of when I got away from it that things started sliding down,” O’Hoppe said. “I wish I hadn’t taken so long to realize it. But I just feel more convicted in what I’m doing now.”
O’Hoppe returned to the routine during the series May 29-31 at Tampa. He had two hits in the finale of that series, including a homer. From that game through Friday night, when he had two more hits, O’Hoppe went 9 for 29 (.310) with two homers and three doubles. His OPS in those two weeks was .931. For the season, O’Hoppe is hitting .220 with a .624 OPS.
Anyone who has been around O’Hoppe knows that improved performance on the field has a dramatic impact on his mental state.
“I can’t even put into words how much better it feels,” O’Hoppe said. “I know it’s only been a week or two, but it’s really improved my quality of life. Not playing as well as you have in the past at this level is something that is really hard to deal with. I try to do the best I can, but it’s not easy. I’m happy that I’ve felt that feeling again over the past week or two, because it’s something that I’ve been looking for for over a year.”
Manager Kurt Suzuki said it’s also helped that O’Hoppe has had more time to heal from the fractured hand that put him on the injured list from April 26 to May 14. He had said he was starting to feel good at the plate just before that injury.
“I think any time you have a hand injury, I think it definitely affects you,” Suzuki said. “Even if it’s feeling better, there’s the mental state just making sure that it’s good. I think getting past that, now being able to fully work without any kind of mental things, it’s starting to help him.”
NETO’S SLUMPS
Suzuki said it’s not time to move Zach Neto out of the leadoff spot, even though the shortstop has continued to strike out at a high rate all season. Neto’s 31% strikeout rate is 10th highest in the majors. He struck out in 13 of his last 25 plate appearances heading into Saturday’s game.
If Suzuki does choose to drop Neto down in the lineup, Wade Meckler would be the obvious choice to hit leadoff. Meckler is currently hitting third, behind Neto and Mike Trout.
“Right now I like Wade behind Trout,” Suzuki said. “We’ll see. But I like Neto in the leadoff. He’s hit some big homers for us and some good at-bats. Obviously hit a little rough patch right now, but it’s baseball, right? You know, this guy, how talented he is, it can change in a game, in an at-bat, in a pitch. I still like him in that spot.”
Neto has done enough damage in between strikeouts to have an OPS of .773, which is well above average and not far from last year’s .793 mark.
The other issue is his defense. His 13 errors are the most in the majors, at any position. Neto acknowledged last weekend that he needs to be better on routine plays.
“Definitely something that we’ve been looking at and seeing which ways we can help him with drills and stuff like that,” Suzuki said.
NOTES
The Angels have penciled left-hander Sam Aldegheri in to start again on Wednesday, the finale of the series at Arizona. Aldegheri gave up one earned run in five innings on Friday. He has a 2.12 ERA in 17 innings this season. …
Infielder Adam Frazier (elbow) has been doing defensive drills and taking batting practice.
Infielder Christian Moore and outfielder Josh Lowe each hit two homers for Triple-A Salt Lake on Friday night. Moore is hitting .317 with an OPS of 1.003 at Salt Lake, including .413 and 1.198 over his past 10 games.
UP NEXT
Rays (TBD) at Angels (RHP Grayson Rodriguez, 2-2, 8.10), Sunday, 1:07 p.m., ABTV, 830 AM