The Angels and Rangers announced an intra-division trade on Wednesday evening. Texas acquired reliever Chase Silseth and catcher Logan O’Hoppe in exchange for infield prospect Angel Arredondo. ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Silseth/O’Hoppe deal, while Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News was first on Arredondo.
Texas opened the necessary space on the 40-man roster by transferring catcher Danny Jansen and rookie reliever Jose Corniell to the 60-day injured list. The Halos activated Travis d’Arnaud from the 60-day IL just before the start of tonight’s game with the Astros. He’ll pair with Tyler Heineman behind the plate. They haven’t announced a corresponding pitching move, so perhaps they’ll play with a seven-man bullpen tonight.
O’Hoppe is the bigger name of the two players heading to Arlington, but the 26-year-old Silseth is probably the more impactful get for Texas. The Rangers have a very young bullpen that’s light on power arms and swing-and-miss stuff. Silseth brings that to the middle innings, albeit with a few too many free passes.
A former 11th round pick, Silseth broke into the majors as a starter in 2022. He was up and down from Triple-A and battled injuries for the next few seasons. Silseth missed a month with a concussion in ’23 and had an elbow issue that required season-ending arthroscopic surgery a year later. Silseth moved to the bullpen last year and is in his first full season as a big league contributor.
The Arizona product has made 47 appearances, working to a 2.72 earned run average over 39 2/3 innings. Silseth has fanned 27.6% of opponents behind an excellent 14.1% swinging strike rate, missing bats with both a 96 mph fastball and a plus splitter. He has always had below-average command and has walked nearly 13% of batters faced this year, struggling with left-handed hitters in particular. The Halos have used him mostly in middle relief, though he was tied for second on the team with nine holds.
Silseth should play a similar role in Texas. He’s under team control for four-plus seasons and is playing on a pre-arbitration salary. That’s crucial for a club reportedly operating without much payroll space but looking to extend their 1.5-game lead in the AL West. (MLBTR listed Silseth among a handful of controllable relievers who could be surprise trade candidates based on that affordability and his strikeout stuff.) He’s out of minor league options and needs to stick on the MLB roster.
O’Hoppe won’t jump directly onto the big league club. Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas will option him to Triple-A Round Rock. They’ll stay with an Elias Díaz and Austin Wynns pairing behind the plate for the time being. Texas has been without Jansen since early June due to a forearm strain. Today’s IL transfer is a procedural move but the veteran backstop said last week that he might need to undergo season-ending surgery. The Rangers also placed Kyle Higashioka on the injured list last week with a flexor strain; his recovery timeline isn’t clear.
Texas didn’t have any additional depth catchers on the 40-man roster. They’ll take a flier on O’Hoppe, a former top prospect who looked like the Halos’ long-term catcher when he hit at a league average level between 2023-24. His production on both sides of the ball has tanked over the past year and a half. O’Hoppe had a .629 OPS last season and has had an even tougher ’26 campaign. He’s hitting .209/.271/.295 with four home runs across 256 trips to the plate.
O’Hoppe missed time with a concussion last year and suffered a left wrist fracture on a foul tip this April. He only missed three weeks but has seen his batted ball metrics plummet. O’Hoppe is averaging 86.9 mph off the bat this season, four ticks below where he’d been each season from 2023-25. He’s hitting .212/.241/.314 in 46 games since the injury.
While he’s clearly healthy enough to be on the field, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the wrist has had a lingering impact on his power. He needs to hit the ball with authority, as he has always been an aggressive hitter who strikes out a fair amount.
O’Hoppe also hasn’t progressed as the Angels hoped defensively. He rates as a below-average pitch framer and has really struggled as a blocker. O’Hoppe is tied for the seventh-most passed balls over the last two seasons and has been behind the plate for 75 wild pitches — 20 more than any other catcher. The quality of the Angels’ pitching staff certainly plays a part in that, but Statcast grades O’Hoppe as the least effective blocking catcher in the league this season. He’s middle of the pack in average pop time and essentially league average at throwing out baserunners.
The Halos were clearly ready to move on. They’re reportedly looking to add a young catcher on the trade front, a signal of O’Hoppe’s falling standing in the organization. They offload the approximate $846K remaining on his $2.625MM arbitration salary. O’Hoppe will be eligible for arbitration at least two more times. That’d climb to three years after this if he spends a full month in Triple-A on optional assignment, as he needs to spend another 39 days on an MLB roster or injured list to cross the four-year service threshold before season’s end.
It’s the first trade for Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak, who could oversee significant changes if the Halos move any or all of Reid Detmers, José Soriano and Zach Neto. They’re reportedly more open than they’ve been in years past to discuss controllable pieces. This doesn’t signal too much about their trajectory on more impactful trade pieces but could be the start of a busy week for the front office.
More to come.
