Angels' Logan O'Hoppe Shockingly Trying Out New Position

Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group reported O’Hoppe spent about 15 minutes before Wednesday’s game against the New York Mets taking ground balls at third base, then another 10 minutes getting instruction from infield coach Ryan Goins.

According to Fletcher, O’Hoppe insisted afterward that he was “just messing around,” saying the session with Goins arose because “I like learning.”

Yet no team has fewer Defensive Runs Saved from their catchers this season than the Angels. At a collective minus-10 DRS, they're tied with the Colorado Rockies for last in MLB through Tuesday. O'Hoppe, the primary catcher, is responsible for minus-7 DRS by himself.

The 25-year-old has thrown out only eight of 49 attempted base stealers. That 16 percent caught stealing rate represents a dropoff from 2024, when he threw out 26 percent of would-be base stealers.

Against this backdrop, it's at least intriguing to contemplate what might happen if O'Hoppe takes well to the third base position in practice. And it's hard to accept the subject of his curiosity as mere fancy.

The Angels have gotten -2.0 bWAR from their third basemen this season, 29th in MLB. A contending team might be tempted to scour the trade market for help at the position before the July 31 trade deadline.

The Angels are not a contending team — at least not yet. At 49-53, they are 4.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox for the third and final Wild Card berth in the American League. That makes it tempting to contemplate a postseason push, but hard to justify trading future prospects in service of a season with less than a 3 percent chance of making the playoffs (through Tuesday, according to FanGraphs).

It makes sense for the Angels to explore all their internal options before committing to bringing in any players from outside the organization. Still, it would be surprising to see O'Hoppe — a career catcher with ample time to improve at the position — make a position change midway through a season.

Fletcher notes that third basemen Yoan Moncada and Luis Rengifo are both trade candidates if the Angels fall further out of contention, which could elicit in a situation where someone needs to fill in at the position.

O'Hoppe might be a mere fill-in candidate if his third base experiment is a success. Even in that scenario, it makes sense for him to start breaking that glove in now.