Angels official photo day featured antics from familiar veteran prankster

Team photo day is always a nice tradition for MLB teams. Players get their picture taken and get them plastered on baseball cards or used in marketing or in articles like this, even if they had to wake up at 6 a.m. to take themas the Los Angeles Angels did.

Some players have more fun with the exercise than others, and Angels catcher Travis d'Arnaud is definitely in the "have fun with it" camp.

At the team's photo day, he kept things light by heckling and bantering with photographers, which is not a huge shock since we know he likes to goof around and have some laughs during games as well.

Travis d'Arnaud unsurprisingly keeps it light at Angels photo day

A few years ago, d'Arnaud had a very funny moment in a blowout when he was on the Atlanta Braves. The Braves were up 14-3 in the eighth inning, and the Washington Nationals had brought Dee Strange-Gordon, an infielder, into the game to pitch to preserve their other pitchers.

On the first pitch of the at-bat, Strange-Gordon drilled d'Arnaud with a 52-mile-per-hour pitch that sent the catcher to the ground in mock agony. It was a good bit of acting and provided some levity in an otherwise snoozer of a game.

The baseball season is a long one, so it is important to have veteran goofballs like d'Arnaud around to keep things light and joke around.

While d'Arnaud was once an All-Star and a Silver Slugger Award winner, those days are far behind him. Last season with Los Angeles, the 37-year-old slashed .197/.255/.343 with six home runs and 21 runs batted in.

His numbers were not that pretty, but he still had memorable moments like a go-ahead hit in a game against the Athletics when five Angels batters were hit by a pitch. He also had a walk-off hit in July.

While Logan O'Hoppe is still going to be the primary catcher, d'Arnaud is a nice insurance policy to have behind the dish. O'Hoppe was really not all that great at the plate last season, and d'Arnaud graded out slightly better behind the plate, so the veteran could end up seeing some more playing time if he gets hot with the bat.

But as long as he is serviceable behind the plate and provides some laughs over the course of the season, he will have done his job as the team's backup catcher.