2 hitters who singlehandedly sunk the Angels' playoff hopes this month

The 2025 Los Angeles Angels lived and died by their lineup this season. At their best, the batting order looked deep 1-through-9 and each and every player were belting homers at an extreme rate. The team remained fringe-contenders despite the pitching staff being completely unreliable most of the season (they were solid in June).

Well, the Angels' BA, OBP, SLG, and OPS all ranked in the bottom-ten this month and the pitching staff remained unsteady. The team is now pretty much eliminated, barring the most extraordinary turn-around in the history of the sport, really. The Angels are 8.5 games out of a Wild Card spot with four teams in between them and the Mariners. Much of the lineup has thrived in August, but these two position players' games have cratered so much that the team could not sustain their previous success.

2 hitters who singlehandedly sunk the Angels' playoff hopes this month

Nolan Schanuel

This one is not that fair, as it became clear recently that Schanuel's been nursing a wrist injury the past month-plus. That being said, Schanuel should have held himself out much earlier than this as his production fell off a cliff since he was plunked by Philadelphia's Ranger Suárez on the wrist coming out of the All-Star break. Post All-Star break, Schanuel slashed .242/.331/.333/.664. Schanuel slashed .208/.301/.278/.579 with one home run and four RBIs in August before getting placed on the 10-day injured list.

Schanuel hits in the top-three of the batting order, either ahead or behind Mike Trout, and his hitting went south in a major way. The lineup regulars, minus Schanuel and Logan O'Hoppe (more on him in just a minute) have all held their own this month despite the team going in the tank. Taylor Ward, Zach Neto, Luis Rengifo, Jo Adell and Yoán Moncada (Gustavo Campero too) all have an OPS over .800 this month. Trout has a .706 OPS in August, and it's clear pitchers were totally fine walking him to pitch to Schanuel. There's a massive drop-off after Trout until you get to Schanuel's .579 mark. The first baseman had a brutal .069 ISO in August, which was only better than Christian Moore, Oswald Peraza and Niko Kavadas' marks.

The story of Schanuel's season was his marked improvements -- his already elite contact/bat-to-ball skills got even better, he was hitting for more power and even his defense started to come around. His poor August does not define his season, but it's clear that his dip at the plate severely hurt the Angels.

Logan O'Hoppe

Fans turned on O'Hoppe in a major way, as he is becoming a player with a lot of flash but not a lot of substance. It's difficult to laud a player who has near-worst stats in the following categories: K%, BB%, Whiff%, Blocks Above Avg, Caught Stealing Above Avg, Framing, and Pop Time.

The catcher is one of the leaders on the team, and his month epitomizes the story of the 2025 Angels. Both the Angels and O'Hoppe could not capitalize off the more-than-impressive sweep of the Dodgers. O'Hoppe had a massive go-ahead single to secure the sweep, then both the team and he fell flat on their faces despite having everything right their in front of them (to quote Aaron Boone).

The only player with a worse OPS and wOBA than O'Hoppe's .385 and .172 marks this month is a famously horrible hitter in Oswald Peraza. O'Hoppe has shown no improvements whatsoever in the weak points in his game -- he has a team-worst 30.1% InZone Whiff%, 38.3% Chase% and 37.9% overall Miss%. Just brutal stuff from a player many thought would have been an All-Star, and have some version of a season similar to what Cal Raleigh is doing.

O'Hoppe has been vocal, and frankly vulnerable, about his defensive woes this season. The Angels' beat writers have written plenty of stories of all the tweaks the catcher's made to his technique, approach, mechanics etc., but they are just not sticking. In August, O'Hoppe has the third worst SL+ (Strikes Looking Rate vs. Avg) in baseball -- only ahead of Cleveland's Bo Naylor and Minnesota's Mickey Gasper. This turn in SL+, which is an extremely important stat for catchers, is tough because O'Hoppe had been much better the two months prior.

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