The Angels may have a surprising spring training battle on their hands

There's no doubt the Angels have an impressive young core brewing. Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel, Ben Joyce, and Logan O'Hoppe are just a few of the names that provide hope for a brighter future, despite the incredibly glum decade and counting. The way they handled last year's trade deadline and how they've handled this offseason so far make it clear that this is not a rebuilding team, even with emerging from a 99-loss, franchise-worst season.

A rebuilding team with young assets wouldn't add players like Yusei Kikuchi, Jorge Soler, and others if the intention was simply to turn the reins over to the kids. No, this is a team that wants to compete, and will run out the players that give them the best opportunity to win ball games. If that's the youngsters, so be it, but veterans will get equal opportunities as well.

In many places on the roster, there isn't much overlap between youth and veteran experience. One place, however, where that juxtaposition appears is behind the dish. Logan O'Hoppe turns 25 next month and is expected to be the starter after working in that role for the first time last season. The Angels didn't upgrade from a low-impact player in Matt Thaiss to Travis d'Arnaud just for the productive veteran to sit on the bench, though.

A spring training battle could be looming for the Angels' primary catcher role

O'Hoppe started 125 games last season at catcher, which was the third-highest total in the league. He handled himself well enough, but a brutal second half caused his strikeout rate to balloon to an untenable 38.2% and tempered some expectations going forward. O'Hoppe probably won't live up to his 2025 projections unless real adjustments are made following that dreadful stretch to end last year. If the downtick in performance lingers past spring training, his job as the presumptive no. 1 catcher might not be safe.

Travis d'Arnaud is no spring chicken, and the soon-to-be 36 year old has only topped the 100 games played plateau in a single season once in the last five seasons. He has spoken about wanting to be a mentor for O'Hoppe and help him become the best he can possibly be. That might come, but more in the form of leading by example.

Throughout his career, d'Arnaud has been a solid all-around back stop. He is an above average framer and handles pitch blocking well, even without the greatest tools. With the bat, he's still a productive player, as evidenced by last year's 103 wRC+. A .199 ISO for a catcher is borderline elite, and that's the number d'Arnaud finished with last year.

In the aggregate, d'Arnaud was worth 1.8 fWAR in 2024. O'Hoppe posted a 2.1 fWAR, however, that came in 37 more games played. A case can certainly be made that right now that the aging veteran is the better player. d'Arnaud won't usurp O'Hoppe entirely, and if the young gun shows out in spring training he won't have to do much looking over his shoulder. Even if d'Arnaud proves to be the better option for right now, his age and durability will limit the number of games he's able to play.

The most likely scenario is they split the load in a more even distribution than what we saw from the Halos last year. O'Hoppe is the future, and the team won't let the present compromise that. He is the priority. By the same token, they didn't give d'Arnaud $12 million over two years for nothing.

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