LI's Logan O'Hoppe impresses Angels players, manager Ron Washington with ability to catch on quickly at major-league level

Hours before the Stadium would be full of fans rooting against him, Logan O’Hoppe took a moment to sit in the same second deck left field seats he used to watch Yankees games from as a kid growing up in Sayville.

O’Hoppe, 24, no longer supports his childhood team or throws back opponent home runs from these seats, as he did when then Orioles third baseman Manny Machado hit one right at him two months before the Phillies drafted O’Hoppe straight out of high school in 2018.

On Wednesday, O’Hoppe was hoping the rain would hold off so more than 350 of his family and friends could watch him continue his breakout season as the Angels starting catcher in a doubleheader against the Yankees.

Among the guests rooting on O’Hoppe were Penny, a 9-year-old from Long Island battling leukemia; O’Hoppe’s father, Michael, who has been cancer-free for 2 years post stem cell transplant; and his father's oncologist, the Angels announced on X.

“It’s pretty surreal. It never gets old,” said O’Hoppe, who graduated from St. John the Baptist High School in West Islip.

Angels manager Ron Washington praised O’Hoppe for how quickly he has improved throughout his first full season as a major league player.

“I’ve seen him grow a lot,” Washington, who won a World Series in 2021 as Atlanta’s third-base coach and has been in baseball since 1977, said.

“If you would have been around him in April you wouldn’t think this is the same O’Hoppe. He’s a major league catcher now,” Washington said, noting that O’Hoppe seems to be calmer now and more understanding of all the information a catcher must be able to process.

“It hasn’t been a masterpiece at all,” O'Hoppe said. “But I feel like I have a better understanding of how to navigate at bats and of what’s going on.”

Entering Wednesday’s doubleheader, O’Hoppe had 46 RBIs, 16 home runs, and owned a .277 batting average and .796 OPS as a key cog in the heart of the Angels batting order.

Zach Neto and Hans Crouse, current teammates of O’Hoppe who also played with him in the minor leagues, said it was only a matter of time before he established himself as a game manager and a productive hitter.

“You could definitely tell there was something different about him, how dialed and locked into the game he already was at such a young age,” Crouse, who was teammates with O’Hoppe when they were both in the Phillies organization, said of when he first met O’Hoppe.

“In my personal opinion, he’s already a top three catcher in all of baseball,” Crouse said.

“I don’t expect anything other than what he’s doing right now,” said Neto, who was roommates with O’Hoppe when the two played Double A together. “Right away, I knew he was gonna be a big-league catcher. It was just a matter of when.”

Ben Joyce, fresh off throwing a 104.7 mph fastball that struck out J.D. Martinez and sealed an Angels victory against the Mets on Saturday, said O’Hoppe does a great job as what Neto called “the backbone of the infield.”

“He brings you a lot of confidence,” Joyce said. “You’re confident throwing anything to him because you know that he’s prepared for whatever the situation is.”

This proved true on Saturday against the Mets, Joyce said, when he entered the eighth inning with two outs but inherited a runner on third and only a one run lead.

With O’Hoppe behind the plate, Joyce said he felt comfortable throwing any pitch because he knew O’Hoppe would stay in front of any potential wild pitches and not allow the tying run to score.

In a four-pitch at bat, Joyce threw three breaking pitches, including one that induced an inning-ending groundout to preserve the lead.

The hard-throwing Joyce said no pitch, even the one that clocked in as the fastest pitch of the season, is too hard for O’Hoppe to frame.

In addition to a steadying presence, O’Hoppe also brings a wealth of arm talent behind the plate, which he has flashed in the past by throwing out base runners from his knees behind home plate.

This season, O’Hoppe has caught 11 runners stealing, which is good for a respectable 19% but still three below the amount calculated as his expected number, according to Baseball Savant.

His teammates say it is only a matter of time before the statistics grow more representative of the talent.

“He works on it every day,” Joyce said. “He’s getting better every day, and I trust him back there. He’s thrown a few guys out while I’ve been pitching and that’s a huge boost as a pitcher when you know you have a catcher that can help control the running game.”

More than anything, O’Hoppe is praised for his leadership, both through words and example.

“It starts with him from day one,” Joyce said. “He’s the first one there, one of the last ones to leave. He loves all the guys and makes a personal relationship with everybody. It’s really cool to get the opportunity to play with him.”

“He’s coming out as a leader. He’s just showing who he really is,” Neto said.

“If you're a leader, you'll get followers,” Washington said when asked about the leadership O’Hoppe’s teammates rave about. “And for you to ask that question, [he] must have some followers.”