Angels Have Used Simple Method to Get So Close This Season

The Los Angeles Angels have been off to a great start to the 2025 season, and a lot of the success can be traced back to a few ways the team has grown closer off the field.

The start of spring training saw a cell phone ban implemented in the clubhouse by manager Ron Washington. The skipper assured the baseball world that it wasn't a punishment, and players even went as far as saying that they enjoyed the rule, as it led to conversations that otherwise wouldn't have been had.

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Now 22 games into the season, the closeness has remained. Catcher Logan O'Hoppe attributes it to a team group chat that even he doesn't know the origins of, according to MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger.

“It started with a few, and it grew to a lot,” O’Hoppe said. “So now, we’ve got all the boys in it. And it's easy, if we're going to dinner or something on the road and we don't want to go alone, we can shoot a quick text, and it's helped us a lot.”

The early bonding without phones to start the spring, the influx of demonstrated veteran talent acquired in the offseason, and perhaps the team text chain are all adding to what outfielder Jo Adell says feels like constant brotherhood.

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“It’s awesome,” Adell said. “Just being part of the group messages and the team dinners. Just that communication, that constant support and brotherhood. You want everybody to feel like they're a part of it, and they are. We’re definitely going to more group dinners than we have in the past. When Kenley [Jansen] got over here, he brought that up as being important and he's been a part of a championship team.”

Jansen, a former MLB champion with the Los Angeles Dodgers, also touched on how important trust is for a winning ball club.

“You have to understand the importance of trust in each other,” Jansen said. “You have to set the tone off the field and bring it to the field. I’m a big believer in that. That’s how you win a majority of your games. It’s not about the individual.”

The closeness and experience gained in the clubhouse this year is already paying off, but there's no telling where the new team camaraderie will take the Halos as the season goes on.

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For more Angels news, head over to Angels on SI.