5 players you completely forgot played for the Angels in 2023

64 players have played in at least one game for the Los Angeles Angels in 2023. That ties the second-highest mark in franchise history, and they are just three away from setting a new franchise record. The bevy of injuries and constant roster turnover are to blame for this.

The Angels have had to dig well beyond their initial 40-man roster, something teams wish they didn't have to do. Part of the reason the team collapsed the way they did is because of the lack of depth in the organization.

Each team cycles through some young players and veterans who rarely appear in games so fans forget they were even there. Did you remember the three games Austin Romine caught last season? Or the one appearance Brian Moran made out of the bullpen? Hard to remember. There're many examples of this from this season alone.

1) LA Angels fans forget Chris Okey played for the team in 2023

The Angels entered the season with Logan O'Hoppe and Matt Thaiss as their catching tandem. O'Hoppe won the starting job, but the Angels were determined to give Thaiss, a former first round pick made by the Angels, a long look as well with him being out of options.

O'Hoppe went down with injury early on this season, and that immediately thrust Thaiss into the starting role. Fortunately, the Angels had a third catcher in AAA in Chad Wallach who was a solid option for a third catcher. The problem is, beyond Wallach the options were very limited. This meant if there was any injury to either Thaiss or Wallach, the Angels would be in trouble.

Wallach landed on the concussion IL in early May which meant the Angels would have to call up a man by the name of Chris Okey, a player the team signed on Opening Day to a minor league deal. Okey had two hits in 12 at-bats in seven games for the Reds in 2022, that was it for his MLB experience.

Despite the fact that he wasn't on an organization before Opening Day, the Angels still for some reason felt it was in their best interest to have Okey make his Angels debut catching Shohei Ohtani. Not only did he strike out in both of his at-bats against the Astros, he had issues catching Shohei. Okey wound up appearing in just two games for the Angels, with the second game seeing him come in for defense. The team DFA'd him in July to open up 40-man roster space, but he went unclaimed and has been in AAA Salt Lake ever since.