O’Hoppe using '24 lessons to prepare for '25

This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger’s Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

As Angels catcher Logan O'Hoppe was mired in his slump that began in early August, he admitted some doubts started to creep in.

O’Hoppe had a strong start to the year and was a potential All-Star candidate, but once the club started a road trip to his native New York on Aug. 7, he fell into a deep funk at the plate. But O’Hoppe snapped out of it with a strong finish, including going 4-for-5 in his final game of the year to head into the offseason with some peace of mind.

“Part of what I was thinking during that tough month and a half, whatever it was, was me wondering if it's still in there,” O’Hoppe said. “You get in the mix, and you're just like, ‘Man, I'm not feeling or doing the same things I was.’ I'm gonna work to have a long career ahead of me. But when you're in the moment, it's tough to see that. But I’m happy and I finally got back to feeling like myself.”

O’Hoppe, 24, finished his first full season behind the plate batting .244/.303/.409 with 20 homers, 17 doubles and 56 RBIs in 136 games. He also caught 127 games -- which was tied for the third-most in the Majors -- and 1,064 1/3 innings -- which ranked third among all catchers.

He was batting .277/.333/.463 in 96 games before he fell into his 21-game slump in August that saw him hit .079 (6-for-76). But he batted .266/.338/.453 with three homers and six RBIs in 19 games in September to finish on a high note.

Angels manager Ron Washington said he didn’t think that O’Hoppe ever lost confidence, but he was simply going through the physical and mental grind of being a catcher for the first time across a full season.

“He's very confident in what he’s doing and [with] what he brings to the table,” Washington said. “But being young, I think he just got into his feelings. But you have to look at the big picture and he posted. And then you move on from there.”

Angels general manager Perry Minasian pointed out that while O’Hoppe had a rough August offensively, it didn’t stop him from continuing to make improvements behind the plate and working with the club’s young pitching staff.

“There's two sides to everything, right?” Minasian said. “And catching, for me, the defensive side is really, really important. And if you look at the strides he made behind the plate the second half of the season, they were huge. The throwing was better, the framing was better, the game-calling was better, the blocking was better. From an offensive standpoint, yeah, sure, he struggled. Just like a lot of young players, everybody struggles to a certain extent.”

Washington and Minaisan both said they believe O’Hoppe will be better in the long run because of what he endured this season. He now knows what it takes to get through a full year, just like his young teammates Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel, who also made it through their first full seasons.

“When you catch that much, it's hard to have consistent months in a year, and over the course of the year, you're going to hit lulls,” Minasian said. “The biggest thing for him and for us and the reminders we kept giving him is offense is a bonus. Your job is to take care of the pitcher, right? That's what catchers do.”

O’Hoppe has also already emerged as one of the club’s key leaders and has worked to earn the trust of the club’s pitchers. He said during the season his goal was to try to catch 150 games, but Washington and the coaches had to help rein him in a bit. But his eagerness to play and catch as much as possible, while also dealing with knee soreness down the stretch, is something that didn’t go unnoticed by his teammates.

“Teams take the personality of two players for the most part, right?” Minasian said. “The manager and usually, if there's a bell cow catcher, you'll see that throughout the team, it rubs off on everybody else. He understood what happened over the course of the year. He just loves playing and he loves winning. It’s who he is.”

O’Hoppe said he believes things will get better not only for him but for the organization going forward. The Angels are building around their young core, and O’Hoppe is emerging as a potential face of the franchise. And after finding his swing again late in the season, he’s feeling good about himself heading into next year.

“It came a little too late, but I’m just glad to finish the season feeling like myself again,” O’Hoppe said. “It’s something to build on heading into the winter.”