With his father cancer free, Angels prospect Logan OHoppe delivers in debut -

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Mondays are typically off-days in the minor leagues. During a grueling season full of travel, it’s the one day a week to recharge.

A year ago to the day, Logan O’Hoppe was in the Phillies organization with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. The team was in Buffalo and arrived home on a flight that landed at 3 a.m. He got to his car and drove straight through the night to Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in New York.

His dad, Michael O’Hoppe, was undergoing his third chemotherapy treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. During the stretch run of his season, Logan wanted to be there for his father. He needed to be there for him.

“It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to drive with no sleep. But with those circumstances, it doesn’t matter what’s going on,” O’Hoppe said Wednesday. “It’s what (my parents) instilled in me when I was younger. There’s never an excuse (not) to get things done if you care about it enough and if you love it enough.

“Going to that treatment was just as important as this was for me. I applied the same thing to chasing this dream.”

The dream O’Hoppe is referring to is becoming a Major League Baseball player. It’s a dream he realized on Wednesday when the 22-year-old Angels’ top prospect made his debut in the Angels’ 4-1 victory over Oakland with his cancer-free father and many other friends and family in the stands. O’Hoppe is a power-hitting catcher who is adept defensively with a quick pop time. He immediately went to the top of the Angels’ prospect boards after the Angels got him in exchange for Brandon Marsh at the trade deadline. He’d mashed 11 homers in just 98 at-bats. His OPS was 1.147 in those 29 games.

Logan O’Hoppe and his father have always been close, but Michael’s health ordeal only tightened the family bonds. (Courtesy: O’Hoppe family)

O’Hoppe singled in his first major-league at-bat as part of a 1 for 3 night.

The last year was trying for the O’Hoppe family. For them, it was life and death. But this was the light at the end of the tunnel. The thought of someday seeing Logan put on a big-league uniform. The emotion of hugging after the game. Knowing they made it through together.

“We’re grateful it’s behind us and in the rearview mirror,” Michael told The Athletic by phone hours before his son’s debut. “It changed us all for the better and made us stronger. I’m so proud of the way he handled himself, the adversity.”

Logan and his father have always been close. Before opting to play pro baseball following his 23rd-round selection in 2018, his plan had been to attend his father’s alma mater, East Carolina. Michael and his wife, Angela O’Hoppe, wanted to shield their children as much as possible from the cancer diagnosis. O’Hoppe’s grandfather had died just four days prior in the summer of 2021. They got a counselor’s advice before breaking the news to Logan and his twin sister, Melanie.

The prognosis was good, but Michael’s treatment was grueling. He underwent six rounds of chemotherapy and had to relocate to an apartment next to the hospital’s cancer center. He got seven consecutive days of chemo before undergoing a stem cell transplant. It made him weak, tired and sick. Then he got COVID-19 on top of it all.

After getting diagnosed in August 2021, it wasn’t until April 2022 that he was cancer free. Michael, 52, will go back for follow-up testing in the coming months.

“He was so close to not being here for this. So we are filled with gratitude,” Angela said over the phone on Wednesday. “No matter what happens. The fact that he is here, and Michael’s here to see it, oh my gosh, it transcends baseball, doesn’t it?”

Many in the Long Island community have rallied around Logan and his journey to the big leagues. One of the Phillies’ northeast scouts, Tom Downey, flew out to Anaheim for the occasion. He’s known and coached O’Hoppe since he was 11 and played a role in the Phillies selecting and signing him.

Coaches, trainers, family and friends alike made the cross-country trek, all on a day’s notice. They packed into an Airbnb in Anaheim before going to Angel Stadium.

Even Logan’s trek to this moment was chaotic. He’d just arrived at JFK Airport in New York City on Saturday after heading home at the conclusion of the Double-A season. As Logan was headed to baggage claim, he got a text saying he’d be on the Angels’ taxi squad. After one whirlwind day of spending time at home on Long Island and visiting his girlfriend at Penn State, he flew across the country.

Logan landed with the hope of someday becoming the Angels’ future at catcher. That’s why the Angels traded for him. That’s why they’re calling him up now, with eight games to play.

“Above all the other stuff, I’m here to win,” Logan said. But that priority didn’t block out the significance of what it meant for his family. “It was more of a life lesson — it taught me more than it knocked us down. It’s just so special. The fact that he’s here and his heart’s beating.”

The O’Hoppe family members are criers, a fact they freely admit. Talking about his father hours before first pitch, Logan said he’d told himself he wouldn’t cry too much that day.

The emotions on Wednesday were wrapped up in the emotions of the year that led to it. Logan had always performed on the field even as the off-field health concerns for his father consumed him. Across three levels in 2021, O’Hoppe posted a .789 OPS, which included 17 homers. It’s the year he went from any other minor leaguer into a high-level prospect.

“It was the darkest days for our family, ever,” Michael said. “It was the biggest challenge all of us have ever faced. What he did during that time was remarkable.

“It was always on his mind, and he had to really shut it down when it came game time and the preparation for it. He had to really learn how to turn that off and on.”

Michael said he told himself on Wednesday that he “gets to” see his son play in a Major League game. The word “gets” is accentuated as he said it and repeated it.

Because he knows better than anyone that this day was never a given.

O’Hoppe lined a 1-2 sinker for a single up the middle with one out in the third inning. His family rose to its feet screaming and shouting. Michael raised his fist in the air. A moment of pure joy.

“I’ve thought it. I’ve envisioned it. And yet I still can’t comprehend it,” Michael said. “What I’ve come down to is I’m just going to let it roll, and let what happens happen. It’s going to be overwhelming. I’m just beyond proud of him and what he’s done and who he is.

“I’ll definitely be shedding tears. And very happy to do so.”

(Top photo of Ryan O’Hoppe: Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)

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