Angels News: Nolan Schanuel Praised by Manager for High-IQ, Being a ‘Winning Player’

The 2023 first-round draft pick is already making waves in the Major League.

Nolan Schanuel earlier this year was wrapping up his college career hitting an absurd .447 batting average for the Florida Atlantic Owls. His incredible college career got him selected in the first round of the MLB draft, 11th overall, to the Los Angeles Angels.

Now, just six weeks from being drafted, Schanuel is making plays for the Los Angeles Angels.

Schanuel made a huge impact on Friday during his MLB debut. He went 1-4 with one walk while scoring two runs, but that was not the best part. 

The 21-year-old first basemen took part in just the seventh triple play in franchise history, and the first since 1997.

🚨 TRIPLE PLAY 🚨#GoHalos pic.twitter.com/K5AtYviWWi

— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) August 19, 2023

After the two force outs at second and first base, the runner on third took off for home. Schanuel quickly noticed that and took no time firing home to Logan O'Hoppe to complete the triple play and send the Angels to the bottom of the 9th still tied.

The heads-up play and consistent hard work is being recognized by Angels manager Phil Nevin.

“Those are just baseball-awareness, high-IQ plays, which is everything we’ve heard about him,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said of Schanuel. “He busted out of the box too, plays the game hard, plays the game right. You can look at numbers and tell when people are winning players. For two days I’ve seen a winning baseball player out there.”

(via J.P. Hoornstra, The Orange County Register)

Winning players are exactly what the Angels need right now as they still try to fight for that last American League Wild Card spot and make the playoffs.

Sitting at 61-64 the Halos are 8.5 games out of the last Wild Card spot, but bad runs from the Mariners, Blue Jays, and Red Sox can put the Halos in prime position to steal the last spot for October baseball. All with the help of Schanuel.