Angels Young Star Had to Fall in Love With Game Again After Last Year's Struggles

Jun 15, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Los Angeles Angels catcher Logan O'Hoppe (14) shakes hands with infielder Zach Neto (9) after hitting a two run home run against the San Francisco Giants during the sixth inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images | Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Angels are off to a 11-10 start to the 2025 campaign, and a lot of that is because of the youth movement taking place in Anaheim.

Halos catcher Logan O'Hoppe is batting .286 so far this season with five home runs and a .847 OPS. He recently revealed to Fox Sports' Rowan Kavner that he had to rediscover his love for the sport toward the end of last season.

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"Not a lot of people knew the demons, quite frankly, I was battling," said the young catcher.

After a .276 batting average to start the 2024 campaign, the back half of the season saw a slash line of .196/.266/.312, including a .099 average in the month of August.

"I learned a lot from it," O'Hoppe said of the abysmal month. "Once I stepped away from it and reflected on it, it made me fall in love with the game again. I realized where I was going wrong, where I was putting too much weight on different things, where I didn't need to beat myself up when I was."

Angels hitting coach Bo Porter revealed that part of what helped with getting O'Hoppe out of the summer slump was to start visualizing how the next year would be different. The hitting coach suggested that O'Hoppe attend the World Series that season as a fan to try and recapture the love of the sport.

The 25-year-old lives in his childhood home in Long Island during offseasons, so attending Games 3 and 5 of the Fall Classic in New York were convenient, but also eye-opening.

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"I felt he would really benefit from getting into that atmosphere and going, 'OK, this is what it's all about'," Porter said.

O'Hoppe is doing well in 2025, but still credits the dreadful slump with changing everything for him. If anything, it led to him having the same child-like wonder for the game once again.

"I really feel like that stretch last year in August in particular turned me into a completely different person," O'Hoppe said. "I'm enjoying the process of this and the season and being here as if I'm 5 years old again."

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