TEMPE, Ariz. — Despite only being 25 years old, Logan O’Hoppe is already regarded as a leader in the Angels clubhouse. More than just handling the pitching staff as the Angels’ starting catcher, the youngster is adding to his responsibilities by being in charge of the music in the clubhouse.
It’s a job that grizzled veterans normally occupy, but O’Hoppe took the initiative and got access to the clubhouse Bluetooth before anyone else could get their hands on it.
“I don't know, I think I asked first about the Bluetooth and then no one's taken it,” O’Hoppe said about how he landed the clubhouse DJ job.
As for the music itself, it varies by the day. O’Hoppe said he tries to give the clubhouse a different vibe every day but he doesn’t have any playlists set on his phone, he puts his trust in Spotify’s autoplay.
“I use Spotify a lot, so I use whatever genre and I'll play a song and let it go from there,” O’Hoppe said.
The players around the clubhouse have mixed reviews about O’Hoppe’s DJing abilities. Mike Trout said the music selection has been “okay” and that he’d give O’Hoppe a B- grade for his DJing. The biggest area of improvement Trout wants to see is consistency.
“It's subpar,” Trout said. “It's not his fault. Well, it’s kind of his fault because sometimes he gets a little sidetracked with stuff that he has to do. But I think when he's on top of his game, he's good.”
Despite the harsh criticism, Trout said the music that day was “good” and he walked out of the clubhouse singing along to the opening verse of “Después de la Playa” by Bad Bunny.
Zach Neto was a little kinder with his analysis of O’Hoppe’s DJ skills.
“Definitely his style in music,” Neto said is the biggest area of improvement he wants to see from O’Hoppe. “But he's learning. He's starting to get a little bit of Latin music in there. His music is kind of like that random square. You never know what you're going to get.”
Neto speaks from his experiences riding in the car with O’Hoppe in control of the music. He said O’Hoppe will play anything from rap to Spanish music.
Despite the criticisms, the locker room seems to be fine with the job that O’Hoppe is doing as DJ. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with being in control of the music in the clubhouse, especially at such a young age. But Neto believes it’s another reason why he’s a leader.
“I think he’s a guy who wants to be a leader,” Neto said. “I think he's setting the standard pretty good.”