Angels News: Fans Split on Who They Want as the Halos’ Opening Day Catcher

In a poll of Angels fans by The Athletic, nearly half of respondents want prospect Logan O'Hoppe to be the team's Opening Day catcher.

Angels fans are fired up for the 2023 season. Sam Blum of The Athletic put out his annual fan opinion poll, and he got nearly three times as many responses as he did last year.

A year ago, The Athletic ran a similar poll and got 771 people to respond. This year, there were 1,956 responses. The Angels fan base is as engaged as ever and didn’t wait long to use this poll as an outlet for their hopes and frustrations.

As Blum alludes to, the reasons for the fan turnout weren't all positive. After fans saw a light at the end of the tunnel when owner Arte Moreno put the team up for sale, their hopes were dashed when he announced he was going to stick around. Still, the Halos have two of the best players in baseball in Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, and they quietly had an outstanding offseason, adding key pieces in Tyler Anderson, Hunter Renfroe, Gio Urshela, Carlos Estevez, and more.

Blum's entire poll is entertaining and enlightening, and we highly encourage you to check out the whole thing. One question we want to discuss here has to do with who should start behind the plate for Los Angeles this season.

Who should start at catcher for the Angels?

Logan O'Hoppe 48.7%

Max Stassi 40.6%

Acquire player via trade or free agency 8.0%

Matt Thaiss 2.1%

Chad Wallach 0.6%

Apparently 12 people want Chad Wallach to be the Angels' starting catcher, which makes you wonder how many of those 12 have the last name "Wallach." But at the other end of the spectrum, nearly half of the responding fans said they want prospect Logan O'Hoppe to get the job.

O'Hoppe came over from the Phillies at the trade deadline last year in the Brandon Marsh trade, and he immediately started tearing the cover off the ball for the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas. His 1.147 OPS in Double-A earned him a brief call-up at the end of the season, and he starts the spring as a legitimate contender for the starting job.

Blum expects Max Stassi to be the starter to kick off the season, though.

This was an interesting result. Max Stassi’s poor season in 2022 has definitely given his popularity a hit. And fans tend to love highly touted prospects. That’s why O’Hoppe got more votes here, but by a fairly slim margin. Stassi will likely get the nod to start the season, but this will definitely be one of the more interesting competitions to watch in spring and throughout the season.

There's no doubt O'Hoppe is the catcher of the future for the Angels. Could he be the catcher of the present? He just might be.