The Los Angeles Angels got some solid production from first baseman Nolan Schanuel, but both the player and the team feel like there’s room for more. Maybe a lot more, if rookie manager gets his wish to see Schanuel contending for a batting title while showing more power.
That’s a big ask, but Schanuel might have the talent to do it. He’s just 24, but he’s already survived the Angels’ typical trial-by-fire developmental “approach,” which is rushing players to the majors and hoping they can figure it out.
Schanuel has done that and then some. He’s already been the Angels’ starting for two seasons, and he’s established himself as a solid number two hitter. Last years numbers included a slash line of .264/.353/.389 with 12 homers, 23 doubles and 53 RBIs in 132 games.
“This guy should be in the batting title conversation I feel like yearly,” Suzuki said in a piece written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “That's how good I feel like he can be. The guy works his butt off. He's out here with a great attitude, and he's just been a joy to be around.”
More importantly, Schanuel doesn’t strike out much. That’s huge in a lineup full of whiffers, and he struck out in just 12.6 percent of his plate appearances last season. That’s far lower than the league average of 22.5 percent, and the Angels’ percentage was a lot higher as they nearly set the all-time record for strikeouts.
If there’s a hole in the first baseman’s offensive arsenal, it’s bat speed. Schanuel ranked in just the fourth percentile for that advanced metric, and in the sixth percentile for hard hit balls. The first baseman has a great contract stroke, but his swing is considered both short and slow, which is something Schanuel worked on in the offseason.
“I worked on a lot of bat speed stuff and a lot of barrel control too,” Schanuel said. “I feel like with the bat speed, you lose that barrel control because you're so worried about swinging as hard as you can that you lose the end of the barrel. And the worst thing you can do is hit a bunch of popups. So I just worked on a good trajectory, keeping it between a 10 and 26 [degree] launch angle.”
Even the mention of the words “launch angle” makes old-school purists cringe, but Schanuel has improved each year in this metric. The question now is whether more power and production is simply part of his natural maturation process, or whether he needs to shoot for some idealized advance-metric number to get where both he and the Angels want him to go.
Fortunately, Schanuel is also level-headed about this, and he has no illusions about the possibility of joining the rest of the home-run hitters in the Angels lineup.
“I think for me, maybe power might not show in homers, but in doubles,” Schanuel said. “So hopefully I can increase my doubles and that'll increase the slug and give these guys more RBI opportunities.”