Angels Opening Day roster: The case for and against including Logan O'Hoppe

Logan O'Hoppe was acquired by the Los Angeles Angels from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for outfielder Brandon Marsh at the trade deadline. This deal came as somewhat of a surprise as O'Hoppe is one of the better catching prospects in baseball and Marsh hadn't hit much at all at the big-league level.

O'Hoppe had a monster year in AA and ended up getting the call from the Trash Pandas to the Angels for his major league debut with just a week left of the season. He recorded four hits in 14 at-bats for the Angels and is now on the roster bubble heading into 2023. Should he be on the Opening Day roster for the Angels?

Why Logan O'Hoppe should be on the Angels Opening Day roster

The argument for the inexperienced O'Hoppe to be on the Angels Opening Day roster is simple. His bat has been elite in the minors and there is no player in the Angels organization or on the open market with higher upside.

O'Hoppe slashed .283/.416/.544 with 26 home runs and 78 RBI in 104 games this past season in AA. If the Angels would get anything near that performance from the young catcher at the big league level it'd be a monstrous upgrade offensively from the likes of Max Stassi, Matt Thaiss, or any free agent out there.

Steamer is projecting him to hit 12 home runs with 37 RBI in 74 games in 2023. That likely assumes he begins the year in AAA but they project him to have a 118 WRC+ in those games. If Logan O'Hoppe is a 118 WRC+ hitter I want him on the MLB team, plain and simple. The problem is we have no idea what he is at this level.

Why Logan O'Hoppe should not be on the Angels Opening Day roster

Inexperience is undoubtedly the biggest reason why Logan O'Hoppe should not be on the Angels' Opening Day roster. The 22-year-old has just six games played in AAA and those came in 2021. The Angels have had a history of rushing players to the bigs like Brandon Marsh and Jo Adell. Those players underperform and they're called busts right away.

If O'Hoppe is not ready for big-league baseball do not have him on the roster. Give him a ton of reps behind the plate in the spring and make a decision. You lose more than you gain by rushing a prospect, especially a catching prospect when they're not ready.

I have no idea if he's ready or not, but I do know the Angels wanted to give him a look for the last bit of the season. They must think he's ready or at least close to ready if they're giving him a look.

If the Angels believe he's ready, he should be on the roster. There's nobody with higher upside that they can acquire right now and if the Angels actually get good offensive production from their catcher position it brings this offense's potential to a whole other level as they won't be essentially giving outs away anymore with Max Stassi playing most of the time.

If they believe he's not ready, he should be in AAA until he is. The Angels cannot afford for him to be on the roster but look like he doesn't belong and cost them games because of it.

What do you think? Do you trust that he can be ready for Opening Day? Should the Angels bring in someone like Gary Sanchez for insurance?