Surprise!
It was a very short stay on the taxi squad for Logan O’Hoppe. He’s starting tomorrow.https://t.co/DFHFsHYzST
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) September 28, 2022
Huge news out of LA: Logan O’Hoppe (St. John the Baptist 2018) has been promoted to the big leagues by the Los Angeles Angels and will be starting tonight against the Oakland Athletics.
O’Hoppe was traded at the deadline by the Philadelphia Phillies to the Los Angeles Angels for CF Brandon Marsh. The move was surprising at the time considering O’Hoppe had already established himself as one of the top 100 prospects in baseball and at the premium position like catcher nonetheless. After the move was completed, he was immediately regarded as the top prospect in the Angels system.
Since that time, O’Hoppe – who had previously been considered a defense-first catcher – started tearing the cover off the ball at the plate. In 29 games since the trade, he crushed 11 home runs and drove in 33 runs with 29 walks against 22 strikeouts. A ridiculous slash line of .306/.473/.673 is Barry Bonds-esque and it’s from a potential Gold Glove winning catcher.
Needless to say, O’Hoppe has deserved this promotion. This isn’t a cup-of-coffee situation, this isn’t an emergency fill-in position, this is to be a franchise player.
Logan O’Hoppe was named both CHSAA Player and Catcher of the Year. He won the Triple Crown and contributed an RBI double in today’s championship game pic.twitter.com/dj4hhFgzHK
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 28, 2018
Taking a step back, this is huge news for Long Island baseball. While we have continued to churn out big leagues arms through the years (Stroman, Matz, Kay, Tropeano, Palumbo, Nolin, Knehr, Dunn, McCarthy, McGowin, Burawa, etc), we haven’t had a position player in the big leagues since Reid Gorecki in 2009 with the Braves (25 at bats). Prior to that, you’d have to go back over a decade to players like Keith Osik and Frank Catalanotto who both had long careers.
This was long overdue, and it proves that with enough work, Long Island position players have a shot too.
Congrats to Logan, who is one of the nicest kids you’ll ever meet and has earned this moment. He helped lead St. John the Baptist to the CHSAA Championship in 2018 with an historic season and he was named Axcess Man of the Year.
