The Angels have been without top catching prospect Logan O’Hoppe since he suffered a torn labrum in late April, with a timetable for return of 4-6 months. Fortunately for the Halos, however, O’Hoppe appears to be on track to return at the early end of that timeframe, as the backstop told reporters (including The Athletic’s Sam Blum) that he’s set to go out on a rehab assignment next week. MLB.com adds that O’Hoppe is likely to require a maximum-length rehab assignment of 20 days as he attempts to build back up to game shape, though that should still line him up to make his return to the Angels before the calendar flips to September.
With fellow catcher Max Stassi having spent the entire season on the shelf due to hip issues, O’Hoppe’s injury has meant the Angels have relied on a catching tandem of Matt Thaiss and Chad Wallach throughout most of the 2023 campaign. That duo has allowed the club to maintain roughly league average performance behind the plate, as Angels catchers this season rank 16th in the majors with 1.4 fWAR while their wRC+ of 95 ranks 11th. O’Hoppe, who was a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport entering the season and slashed an impressive .283/.339/.547 (138 wRC+) in 59 trips to the plate prior to his injury, figures to provide the Angels with a major boost as they head into the stretch run of the 2023 campaign.
More from the Angels…
- Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani is expected to make his regularly scheduled start on Wednesday against the Giants, as noted by J.P. Hoornstra of The Orange County Register. That’s surely a relief for Angels fans, given Ohtani exited his most recent start after just four innings due to finger cramping. It’s been another sensational season for Ohtani in 2023, as he seems to be the clear favorite to earn his second AL MVP award with free agency on the horizon following the 2023 campaign. On the mound, Ohtani has pitched to a 3.32 ERA and 4.07 FIP in 21 starts with a 31.8% strikeout rate, while he’s slashed .310/.413/.683 with an MLB-leading 40 home runs in 489 trips to the plate.
- Outfielder Taylor Ward saw his regular season likely come to an end last week when he was placed on the 60-day IL with facial fractures after being struck in the face by a sinker from Blue Jays right-hander Alek Manoah. Today, Angels brass provided on update on Ward’s condition, with manager Phil Nevin confirming that the outfielder underwent successful surgery yesterday to repair his left orbital bone and insert internal splints into his nose, per Hoornstra. While the loss of Ward is a major blow to the Angels in 2023, Nevin emphasized that the club “got the best news possible” regarding Ward’s condition as he appeared to avoid any damage to his vision. While ward, who slashed .278/.368/.500 from June 1 onward after a slow start to the season, is seemingly done for the regular season, a potential return in the postseason has not been ruled out, should the Angels manage to make it there.
Something much more sinister happened to Stassi that apparently the Angels beat reporters are aware of, but was never reported.
Wild that there isnt more coverage about how badly Rendon is skating his deal. The Angels narrative is always “tungsten odoyle” but my god have they had bad luck with deals.
Investigative reporting and accountability from the media is almost non-existent in MLB. And Moustakas has been the better 3B at 1/30 the cost. And Stassi has some personal issues which is one reason why he’s been out.
If one digs too deep, they get blacklisted from the clubhouse and access to the execs. MLB and Manfred want to control the narrative. Look at the long careers of Olney, Rosenthal, and Heyman. They’re never controversial or ruffle feathers. Even Passan has piped down with his reporting in recent years.
That’s true of the media, period. Not just MLB. It’s a joke now.
I hope they resign Moustakas– he now looks like Moustakas. They cannot move forward with Rendon, who must now be a bench player or at most a platoon with Moustakas. Buy him out or release him. This team is in deep trouble if Ohtani leaves or stays. Leave and there are gaping holes they cannot fill and if he stays the financial cost will be so enormous that they cannot put the proper supporting cast around him– it’s impossible.
bkbk: This sounds like it has the makings of a Raymond Chandler mystery. What dastardly deed happened to Stassi that the media is dummying up about?
Max ran an elaborate Spy Ring inside the clubhouse that got way out of hand. Also would prevent OF from climbing the wall…
Skullduggery is afoot within the MLB Industrial Complex! Gadzooks!
Ya ever heard of the Havana Syndrome my boy?
Ok Q. Now we certainly believe your delusional conspiracy theories. Go back to your bunker or take your medication.
In all honesty, I hadn’t heard of Havana Syndrome My Boy. Is it a Latin EDM mashup?
Someone here knows who Raymond Chanlder is– that’s wonderfully surprising. Chandler used to write his stories at the bar counter at Musso and Frank’s in Hollywood.
Now, I’m very intrigued
No matter the seriousness of injury, Nevin will always downplay play something off as “the best news possible”. If someone broke an arm he’d say “it was the best news possible that it didn’t have to get amputated.” Or in Ward’s case “well he’s not gonna go blind” If you’re ever sick in the hospital I’d hate to have Nevin as a visitor.
How did Stassi go from “pray for him” at the beginning of the season to just “hip issues” not that he wouldve made a difference just another puzzling angel injury since Minasian took over.
A 20 game rehab? has that ever been done? If he needs 20 games he ain’t healed. Just sit out the season dude.
Skip, MLB Re-Hab rules are pretty straight foreword, 20 days for position players and 30 days for Pitchers (and 2 way players), so in other words yes it has been done before, plenty of times!
True Jaysfan, on top of that, it’s 4+ months on the shelf, not a short 2-4 week stint. The severity of the injury matters to imo..
You ever see Aaron Boone’s press conferences? He lies every time that he opens his mouth. Every day-to-day turns into lengthy IL stint and every IL stint becomes a season ending situation.
The Red Sox just sent Trevor Story out on a 20 day rehab assignment.
I was kinda hoping O’Hoppe would be able to come back next year and potentially win RoY, but I guess that won’t happen.
Don’t be so sure. I’m sure they know exactly how many games and ABs he can be part of and still remain a ROY candidate. This team is currently in the same draft position they were last year. This is what happens when each year we have fill the gap measures and no long term plan.
Bevin is the worst manager in MLB, no clue on handling a pitching staff.
He doesn’t appear to be the sharpest tool in the toolbox; I’ve been watching his post-game interviews and he just grunts & blinks while he stares out with his beady little eyes. I don’t trust people who have eyes that close together. But the players seem to like him.
AUSTIN 3:16 you sit in front the media with your beady little eyes and lying through your teeth how about stone cold stunner to wake ass up and thats the bottom line cause stone cold said so
That’s a bit harsh. His pitchers pitched great today. The game they lost with Estevez imploding was the first such debacle this year and they had everyone lined up and doing their job until the 9th.
To give the Angels credit, every one of those games came down to the wire, and it could have just as easily been an Angels sweep rather than a Mariners one. I’m a Mariners fan, but I’m not sitting here thinking we overpowered the Angels or anything.
Bevin is the worst manager in MLB, no clue on handling a pitching staff
Please stop calling him that.
Yeah, but I bet he can spell his name.
If I’m Ohtani at what point do you say, “why am I busting my butt out here playing less than 100% when everyone else seems to take a day or 2 off for evry little strain or whatever.” Why risk injury when you’ve got a big payday coming and no chance for the playoffs.
I think the Angels know he’s leaving so they’re gonna work him til he breaks while Rendon is laying on some longe somewhere sipping mai tais w a bruised shin.
Because Ohtani has something that’s lost on a lot of Americans today. It’s called work ethic.
These comments sound a lot like “back in my day…” complaints. I think there are some kids on your lawns and clouds floating by for you guys to shout at.
Sounds like you took my comment to heart, almost as if you relate to it. And a common response is to call someone “old” like that’s a bad thing or an insult.
It’s not really a comment about someone being old, it’s about someone saying their way is/was superior to the attitude “of a lot of Americans today,” as if Rendon and others want to be injured and prefer to get paid not to play.
It’s a known cultural commentary that younger generations don’t have the work ethic that older generations have. There are countless articles, videos, etc about it, most poking fun.
It’s also a known cultural commentary that many members of a given generation think their generation is superior to those that follow. Our grandparents probably thought we don’t have the work ethic they did.
Of course, this applies value to work for work’s sake, as if giving our time and effort to a corporation or other endeavor for which that endeavor and its leadership prosper much more than the individual contributors is something to aspire to.
An alternative perspective is that our individual contentment and time pursuing personal pleasure is of greater value than making leadership and stockholders more wealthy.
To each their own, I suppose.
The end game has always been technology and automation. Older generations going back 100 years just happen to be in the earlier stages of that. Remember where the word sabotage originated from? We should be telling our children and grandchildren to be going to school for technical careers. When I go to Target, I see them corralling as many customers as they can to self check out. Machines will take over and humans will just be monitoring them and pushing buttons.
Its a false cultural commentary.
Baseball is life…it’s is not false based on my personal experience in my position.
Its false based on empirical evidence. Your bias is that they don’t have the same work ethic. That is not reality.
Until I retired a few years ago I employed 400 people and nearly 1000 contractors and nearly all of them were Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z and their work ethic was just fine. Stop hiring bad employees.
Because he is mostly a DH? A lot less stressful than playing the field 6 days a week.
But he gets to pitch maybe 6 innings that 1 day a week.
Most player have to at least give 100%, maybe more, to bust their butts. Obtain must be using the metric system if he can bust his giving less than 100%!
Who’s taking the day off? They’re shorthanded. Neto out or playing injured is huge. Starting catcher, third baseman and original first baseman are all out. Drury just came back. Trout and Ward and Adell are out. Joyce and Bachman out + others. The subs that are playing are playing hard and showing fight and enthusiasm– they’re just not as good.
Angels about to lose their third in a row at home to Seattle. That will make another team to climb over to get the last playoff spot, which ain’t gonna happen. Bye bye Ohtani (nothing in return), and along with it, the Angels future,
I personally don’t look at it on how many teams you have to jump over to make the playoffs. simply because, the pace the Angels have to start winning at, is a pace that the teams that are slightly above them can’t even play at, including the Angels. There just to beat up, and there reinforcements won’t make it all back before it may be to late.
It’s to bad because this team is more talented than at least half the teams that are going to make the playoffs.
It’s some what unfortunate with the injuries, they finally put a championship caliber team on the field and then they get ravaged with injuries. On the flip side they’ve should of done this the last 3 years, and not relied on possibly 1 last season of Ohtani.
What pitching staff? Horrible GM!
Finger cramping. Wth is that? A major league baseball player gets hurt in ways nobody else will. Is it arthritis?
It’s repetitive stress from flipping off Arte Moreno in his sleep…all subconscious
You could very well be right.
Remember Walsh missing the first month of the season with insomnia?
Its Long COVID symptoms that included migraines, vertigo, and extreme insomnia.
And the mystery reason as to why Stassi missed the entire season? Ward with facial fractures. Rendon fouling a ball off his leg and being out indefinitely with a non fracture? Only the Angels get these kind of weird injuries in abundance.
As of last week Rendon still had bleeding in the bone according to the team. Bone bruises can be worse than breaks.
Nothing weird about Long COVID. 4 million people are on permanent disability with Long COVID symptoms.
Stassi had family issues and a hip problem. Nothing mysterious about that either.
You have never played baseball competitively. That much is obvious.
It’s Ohtani giving them the finger!
All the same results.
This is total speculation on my part, but the thought came to me that Walsh’s “headaches and insomnia” and Stassi’s “family issue” might be addiction problems. Why else are they so quiet about it? Considering Skaggs’ drug overdose death and ensuing law suits, they’d want to keep any systemic substance abuse issues very quiet.
Again, pure speculation on my part, but the thought came to mind.
HIPAA. Walsh is suffering from long COVID supplying symptoms that include migraines, vertigo, and extreme insomnia.
Stassi had both family issues and a hip injury. As a catcher, its pretty much impossible to play through. Nothing sinister and not drug related.
I didn’t know about the specific Walsh report. But the Stassi situation has been very hush. Again, just me being suspicious, not anything based in fact.
arte morono is paying them to make things up cuz arte loves to lose
Are you 10 years old?
Pure speculation, just asking questions, making stuff up – it’s all the same BS.
gbs42 – actually speculation and making stuff up are two different things. maybe look it up. And I didn’t ask a question. I described my comment twice as speculative.
prov, your speculation is a subtle accusation with nothing to support it.
It’s hard to believe that this team has even competed, or has even remained above 500 with all of the losses to the team. The team has been remarkably resilient despite the fact that the team is hardly recognizable.
There are clear and fundamental flaws with the team but there also isn’t consistancy in the field or the line up, largely due to the injuries. Yet here they are.
Despite all of this, and the absurd injuries that have happened such as a fractured pelvis, broken hand, a ball to Ward’s face, Walsh’s headaches/vision… seriously, what are the chances of injuries like this occurring in the same year on one team? It’s absurd.
But here we are, with an outside chance to make the playoffs. I don’t blame Minasian for trying and the moves that he made with the chips that he had to work with were good. Nevin, despite the haters,the team has stayed in contention when any other team would have already crumbled.
Do I think that we are going to make it? I don’t, but I am at least watching Angel’s baseball in August and I can’t remember the last time I did that.
The problem is their starting pitching. We have one true #1 with Ohtani and the rest are 4s and 5s. Angels fans get overhyped about all of our guys. Detmers with a 4.48 ERA and only 2 wins on the entire season is ridiculous. Sandoval throws way too many pitches, so he doesn’t go deep into games and usually manages to find one inning to implode: His 4.11 era with a 1.41 Whip is not good. Six wins won’t get it done.. Canning has 4:46 ERA and doesn’t go deep. Silseth at 3.71 and a 3-1 record with so few starts is the production they need. He looks like a front line pitcher, but they need an entire rotation of guys like this producing and replacing injured pitchers. Seattle, Houston and Texas have it. The Dodgers, Padres and on and on I can go with teams with dominant pitching. Until we get multiple starters capable of doing what Silseth did today we are going nowhere. Do I need to post Anderson’s below average numbers? He’s another 4 or 5 guy who has pitched much better of late, but he’s not going to go deep into games..
Stassi possibly, but not Walsh. He went away to a named neurological institution for his migraines and insomnia.
Should have just traded Ohtani for a haul at the deadline.
Did any team actually offer “a Haul”, or was the lack of that level of offer the reason they pulled him back?
They pulled him off the market because the winning streak, and only being three games back since then hasn’t been great.
Miserable!
Can we officially start the FIRE Phil Nevin watch? This team is a disaster with his game decisions partly to blame. 1-10 leading up to the all star break and now 0-7 in this latest stretch. It’s sickening!! FIRE the pitching and hitting coaches too!