The Angels once again enter the deadline as clear sellers — this time with a new general manager at the helm. Longtime Cardinals president John Mozeliak is running the Halos’ front office on an interim basis after Perry Minasian’s firing last month, and one of the areas on which he’s focused is bringing in a young catcher, per Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic.
There’s no shortage of needs in the Angels’ system, but their catcher production has been particularly anemic. The Angels hoped to be addressing that need several years ago in a rare swap of controllable top prospects that sent outfielder Brandon Marsh to Philadelphia in exchange for Logan O’Hoppe back at the 2022 trade deadline. That looked like a potential win-win swap for awhile, particularly when O’Hoppe hit .244/.303/.409 with 20 homers and solid defense back in 2024. He’s since seen both his defense and offense plummet.
O’Hoppe, 26, ripped 19 homers in a full-time workload last year but slashed just .213/.258/.371 with a huge 30.8% strikeout rate. He’s made more contact this season, but the quality of that contact has eroded and O’Hoppe still isn’t drawing enough walks (6.9%) to offset his low batting average. He’s averaging just 86.9 mph off the bat with a paltry 36.4% hard-hit rate — marks that are nowhere close to the strong 90.6 mph and 46.6% ones he showed in nearly 1200 plate appearances from 2023-25. O’Hoppe has delivered a feeble .211/.275/.300 slash (61 wRC+) in 245 plate appearances this season while grading as one of the game’s least-effective defenders (-13 Defensive Runs Saved, -13 Fielding Run Value from Statcast).
The Angels control O’Hoppe for two more seasons beyond the current one, but with a .212/.264/.347 slash, -23 DRS and -24 FRV dating back to last season, he’s a clear non-tender or change-of-scenery candidate. Speculatively speaking, it’s plausible that another club could roll the dice on a change of scenery over the final couple months of the current season. The mere fact that Anaheim is looking for a new long-term option at the position speaks to the recognition that some change is necessary.
A new long-term option feels like it’ll have to be acquired via the trade market, whether in the next 10 days or in the offseason. The Angels have four catcher-capable players in their top 30 rankings between Baseball America and MLB.com. None is older than 20. One, Garrett Wright, was just selected in the eighth round earlier this month. Twenty-year-old Juan Flores is the most advanced of the bunch but only just moved up to Double-A, where he’s hitting .243/.264/.429 (82 wRC+) in 73 plate appearances and has yet to draw a walk. Flores is a plus defender with poor grades for his hit tool, speed and power, making him a likely backup unless he can make some gains in the batter’s box.
Landing a high-end catching prospect would be tough for the Angels without a change in their typical approach to the deadline. We’ll learn over the next week-plus whether Mozeliak will spark a change — or, more realistically, whether owner Arte Moreno will give him the green light to do so. For more than a decade, the Angels have staunchly resisted trading players with additional years of club control remaining. They’ve regularly held onto appealing trade candidates until they either reach free agency or see their value dissipate with injuries and/or poor performance. Players like Patrick Sandoval, Andrew Heaney, Luis Rengifo and, most famously, Shohei Ohtani could have netted strong returns (enormous, in Ohtani’s case) if moved at the right time. None were, despite persistent losing records, and it’s part of the reason the Angels find themselves in this current state.
There are at least indications this time around that newly hired Mozeliak will listen on controllable trade chips like shortstop Zach Neto, left-hander Reid Detmers and right-hander José Soriano. Detmers and Soriano are controlled through 2028 — Neto through 2029. If the Angels were to deal all three (to say nothing of rentals like Kirby Yates or controllable relievers like Sam Bachman), they could conceivably overhaul the minor league system in one fell swoop. Moreno hasn’t been willing to do so in the past.
It’s a big “if,” but if Moreno gives the veteran Mozeliak the opportunity to do so, players like Neto, Detmers and Soriano would grant him access to a wealth of catching prospects and other high-end minor leaguers. The Rays, in need of help at shortstop and in the rotation, have two of the game’s top catching prospects in Caden Bodine and Nathan Flewelling. The Twins, who could be in the market for controllable rotation and bullpen help, just drafted Vahn Lackey third overall. He can’t be traded right now, but might his addition to the system make Eduardo Tait easier to surrender in a trade? Mozeliak’s former organization in St. Louis is deep in catchers. The Cardinals aren’t moving Rainiel Rodriguez, who’s probably the top catching prospect in the sport right now, but someone like Jimmy Crooks would have a lesser cost of acquisition and could step right onto the Angels’ roster. Rosenthal and Sammon list the Cubs’ Owen Ayers as another nearly MLB-ready possibility.
All of those names, of course, are speculative fits. None would fetch someone like Neto, Soriano or Detmers on his own. It’s worth noting that the Angels aren’t going to pigeonhole themselves into only focusing on young catchers. The system is weak top to bottom, lacking in virtually every area. Baseball America and MLB.com both list exactly one Angels prospect (right-hander Tyler Bremner) on their recent top-100 updates. FanGraphs gives them three in the top 110 (Bremner, outfielder Hayden Alvarez and righty George Klassen). The Athletic’s Keith Law has lefty Johnny Slawinski as his lone Angel in his just-published top 70 update. The Angels aren’t in a position to be too picky, but it’s still notable that a young catcher is at or near the top of the front office’s wish list.
Whether Mozeliak can provide the boost the system needs is impossible to say right now. He may be listening on Neto, Detmers and Soriano … but will Moreno actually let an executive he’s only hired on an interim basis potentially reshape the entire organization’s future? We’re about to find out.
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