Logan O’Hoppe’s collapse behind the plate didn’t happen all at once, but by the time the Angels moved on, the warning signs had stacked up everywhere.
The bat started slipping first. What looked like a breakout in 2024 turned sour after the All-Star break, when O’Hoppe went from an .800 OPS in the first half to a .578 OPS in the second.
Last season brought even more swing-and-miss, with his strikeout rate climbing above 30% for the first time in his career. He still brought some pop then, finishing with 19 homers in 119 games, but that part of his game vanished this year.
Across 75 games, he hit just four homers, with a .295 slugging percentage and a .085 ISO.
That alone would have been enough to raise alarms. But the bigger problem was what he was doing - or not doing - behind the plate.
O’Hoppe was, by the numbers, a disaster defensively this season. His pop times were slow, he wasn’t controlling the running game, and he graded in the first percentile in both pitch blocking and framing.
Some of the most important catcher work never shows up cleanly in a stat line, and that’s where John Mozeliak’s comments matter. He didn’t just point to the visible issues. He said O’Hoppe was also having trouble with the hidden side of the job.
“When you think about catchers, you focus on two things, right? The ability to catch, throw, call a game from an actual defensive standpoint, and then the offensive skill set.
And I think he was really struggling, putting a lot of pressure on both sides of the ball, and I think that's just really tough to balance. And trying to get him playing time for us was difficult,” Mozeliak said via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com.
That helps explain why the Angels’ next move makes so much sense. In Jacob Cozart, they’re clearly betting on a different kind of catcher.
Cozart, who stands 6-foot-2 and 214 pounds, has the size, but the profile is built around defense rather than offense. MLB Pipeline’s scouting report puts that front and center, praising his framing, receiving, communication with pitchers, game planning and leadership.
It also notes a strong arm, even if his throws were off enough last year that he caught only 23.9 percent of attempted runners.
Cozart isn’t expected to be a speed threat, but he does have above-average agility and enough tools to matter behind the plate. At Double-A this season, he’s hitting .239/.330/.384 with 10 home runs.
He has now logged 100 total games at Double-A between last year and this season, and a jump to Triple-A soon would not be surprising. A big league arrival in 2027 is also still in play.
The Angels may not know yet whether Cozart is their long-term answer. What they do seem to know is that his style fits what they want from the position far better than O’Hoppe’s did.
In Other News...
Angels Rebuild Suddenly Has A Much Clearer Path Forward
The Angels deadline week did not look like the kind of splashy maneuvering that usually changes a franchise overnight, but it did give the organization something it has been chasing for a while: a deeper, more interesting talent base. John Mozeliaks trades brought in high-level prospects such as Moises Ballesteros and Arjun Nimmala, additions that fit neatly into a broader push to stock the system and create more flexibility at the major league level. The farm is still very much a work in progress, but it now has more names worth tracking as players continue moving through different minor league levels.
For a club trying to accelerate its rebuild, that matters as much as any short-term roster shuffle. The Angels have spent enough time searching for a cleaner path forward that every credible addition feels significant, especially when it comes with the promise of more promotions and a healthier pipeline below the majors. The deadline did not solve everything, and it was never going to, but it did make the next phase of the rebuild look a little less hazy. [Read more 🡒]
Three Angels Are Running Out Of Time To Prove They Belong
The Angels deadline reset changed the tone around the clubhouse in a hurry, with the front office shipping out multiple players and bringing back prospects who do not appear to be part of the 2026 picture. That kind of turnover leaves plenty of room for a team to sort through its next wave, but it also puts a sharper spotlight on anyone trying to carve out a role before the season is over.
For Vaughn Grissom, Oswald Peraza and Grayson Rodriguez, the clock is already ticking on more than just the schedule. Each has a limited runway left to show the Angels he can matter in the near future, and the uncertainty only grows from here with the roster still in flux and possible front office changes looming. What they do in the coming weeks could go a long way in determining whether they fit into the next version of the club, no matter who is making the call. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Deadline Push Revealed How Far Theyd Go For Pitching
The trade deadline offered a familiar reminder of how aggressively some clubs will chase pitching, with the Twins coming away with several additions to reshape their staff. Minnesota brought in Dean Kremer, A.J. Minter and Jeff Hoffman, and even explored the idea of landing controllable players such as Zach Neto before the market settled. For the Angels, that only sharpened the attention around Neto, a young infielder who has quickly become part of the organizations long-term picture.
Neto did not move, and the Angels have made it clear to him that he is a key piece of what they are trying to build. The Mariners showed some interest along the way, but never turned that into a real push, leaving Neto in Anaheim as the deadline dust settled around him. Around the division, Carlos Correa is already swinging again after ankle surgery and Jack Leiter is moving toward a rehab assignment, but the Angels more immediate takeaway is simpler: teams hunting for pitching will keep circling, and their core players will keep drawing calls. [Read more 🡒]