The Angels catchers might have silently switched bodies in June

The Angels came into the 2025 season with the expectation that their two backstops would have a major impact on their wins and losses. Between their up-and-coming star in Logan O'Hoppe and their $12 million free agency pickup in Travis d'Arnaud, they knew that they would rely heavily on two catchers and two catchers only. So far, they have been able to keep both healthy and they are developing nice rapports with the five starting pitchers and 100,000 relievers (give or take) the Angels have utilized all season.

On the whole, the two catchers are striking out a ton and not walking all that much and both are posting suboptimal defensive metrics. One of the main differences between d'Arnaud and O'Hoppe are their splits by month. O'Hoppe started the season hot, and d'Arnaud cold. Of late, d'Arnaud is crushing the ball and O'Hoppe cannot hit virtually anything.

The Angels catchers might have silently switched bodies in June

O'Hoppe might be costing himself his first All-Star appearance with his brutal June. Many fans knew that O'Hoppe's horrendous K%, BB% and Whiff% would catch up with him, and his two total bases in nine games this month shows that they definitely did. It's unfortunately keeping to the youngster's trend of streaky hitting based on the month that he established last season.

d'Arnaud has similar issues with his K%, BB% and Whiff%s, but his Barrel% is off the charts and he is finally showing great results. O'Hoppe's backup's greatest moment this month was a game-tying solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning against the A's. He has shown much more confidence at the plate and his swing looks much improved for sure.

While d'Arnaud historically crushes left-handed pitchers and O'Hoppe posts better numbers against right-handed pitchers, Ron Washington has mostly paired the catchers up based on who the Angels are starting rather than who their opponent is. O'Hoppe has caught 13 of Tyler Anderson's 14 starts, 13 of José Soriano's 15 and 12 of Jack Kochanowicz's 14. Meanwhile, d'Arnaud has caught 11 of Kyle Hendricks' 13 starts and 10 of Yusei Kikuchi's 15.

It's nice that the catchers are picking each other up. The tandem clearly has a great working relationship, and d'Arnaud stepping up his game while O'Hoppe struggles is a fantastic embodiment of his leadership role in the catchers' room. Hopefully he keeps mentoring his new protege, and they are able to click at the same time in July, August, September and hopefully October.

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