Angels News: Logan O’Hoppe Among Top AL Rookie of the Year Candidates

MLB.com's prospect expert Jonathan Mayo says Angels catcher Logan O'Hoppe is the number two Rookie of the Year candidate in the American League.

As spring training gets rolling, it marks the end of "prospect list" season and the beginning of predicting what will happen in 2023. The crossover between those two seasons came on MLB.com this week, as prospect experts Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis gave their top five candidates for each league's Rookie of the Year Award.

While the Angels didn't have a ton of names on the prospect lists, their top prospect — Logan O'Hoppe — is ready for the big leagues and, according to Mayo, he is the second-best Rookie of the Year candidate in the American League.

No. 2: Logan O'Hoppe, C, Angels (MLB No. 53)

I think he’s one of these guys who is going to continue to show that he is better than anyone anticipated, came over to the Angels in the Brandon Marsh trade, went completely bonkers, made it up to the big leagues. I think he’s got every opportunity to be their No. 1 catcher. He’s very good behind the plate and I think that’s going to keep him there. He will continue to play just because of how well he works with the pitchers, how good he is behind the plate, he’s got a good arm, but the power is really starting to show up, and he may be a better big leaguer than he was a prospect. And so I think he’s going to be a guy who far exceeds expectations.

O'Hoppe posted a 1.147 OPS with Double-A Rocket City in 29 games last year after coming over from the Phillies in a trade deadline deal. He got 16 plate appearances in a brief cup of coffee with the Halos, and he heads into spring with a chance to earn the starting job behind the plate.

The O'Hoppe-for-Marsh trade could turn out to be an extremely lopsided deal in the Angels' favor, and O'Hoppe winning the Rookie of the Year Award would be a good start for that.