Angels News: Who Will Open the Season as the Starting Catcher?
The Angels don't have a lot of great options at the catcher position right now.
On the active roster, they currently have Max Stassi, Matt Thaiss and Logan O'Hoppe. O'Hoppe has the most potential, but he'll be just 23 years old at the start of next season. So, as of right now, he may not get the first shot to be the starting catcher come Opening Day.
Seeing these names, it's no surprise the Angels were among the teams interested in signing All-Star catcher Willson Contreras. However, he went to St. Louis, leaving the Angels back at square one.
Angels insider Sam Blum was asked who he thought would open the season as the starting catcher next season in a mailbag article for The Athletic. Here's what he predicted:
"My best guess is that Stassi has the starting job entering the season, but you might see others play more fairly quickly if he doesn’t hit."
Stassi looked pretty good in 2020 and 2021, before having a dismal 2022 season. However, Angels GM Perry Minasian did say he expects him to bounce back in 2023, and clearly, Blum thinks he'll get that opportunity, too.
But Blum's back-half of the sentence is the most interesting. If Stassi struggles early on, O'Hoppe can get a very early opportunity to seize the everyday role. Catcher is not yet a position that Angels fans can be excited about. But the quicker O'Hoppe takes over that role, the quicker Angels fans can feel good about that position.
