ANAHEIM, Calif. – Nolan Schanuel’s start to his MLB career has been nothing short of fantastic. He was called up a mere five and a half weeks after the Angels selected him in the first-round of the 2023 MLB First-Year Player Draft. Schanuel’s MLB career hit the ground running with his innate plate vision and ability to draw walks, which led to getting on-base in every game he played in for the big league club the rest of 2023 season.
Schanuel had already broken the Angels franchise record for consecutive games of getting on-base to start a career toward the end of the 2023 season, but he was getting close to the MLB record of Alvin Davis, who got on-base in the first 47 games of his MLB career.
The play that the league office reviewed and corrected to an error happened in the 9th inning of their March 30th game against the Orioles where the Angels were down 13-2 at the time. Schanuel had been trying to beat out a hit ball to the 1st-baseman that was thrown to relief pitcher Mike Baumann, who fumbled and dropped the ball as Schanuel was almost at first-base. It was a bang-bang play to begin with which caused Ryan Mountcastle to rush his throw to Baumann, but it was switched from a hit initially to a dropped catch error by Baumann.
Nonetheless, the on-base streak ended at 30 games and Schanuel shared his thoughts on the stat correction before Saturday’s game against the Red Sox, “It was disappointing [to see the stat correction] but it’s time to move on. Got bigger goals, my #1 priority is to focus on winning more games”. Since March 30th, Schanuel has gotten on base in 7 straight games and would have had his on-base streak at 37 had the stat correction not been made. That would have put him just 11 games away from breaking the MLB record and making history.
Angels Manager Ron Washington wasn’t happy about the stat correction either, “I don’t think it was the right call, but they are the decision makers. I certainly wanted to see history continue. Scorekeeper made a call, another group made another call”. Washington then added he was more focused on Schanuel being more aggressive at the plate, especially with pitches in the zone. Schanuel is hitting just .091 to start this season, and though he isn’t getting many hits just yet, he still has an OBP of .344 because of his plate vision. Still, Washington wants him to look for his pitch and take advantage of it in the future.
On Friday night after the news of the stat correction broke, the Angels appealed the decision and did everything they could to overturn the call. Unfortunately the call stands and Schanuel will continue to focus on being more aggressive with pitches in the zone and helping the Angels win games.
The Angels are now 5-3 and have won five out of their last six games. They will play the series tiebreaker on Sunday with Chase Silseth set to pitch against Tanner Houck with first pitch scheduled for 1:07 PM PST.
