Angels’ Nolan Schanuel Keeps Working Even After Meteoric Rise
First baseman Nolan Schanuel’s rise to the big leagues was meteoric.
Drafted 11th overall last year out of Florida Atlantic, Schanuel appeared in just 22 minor league games before the Angels called him up on Aug. 18.
He found his first taste of the major leagues to be pretty sweet. Schanuel reached base in all 29 games he played and showed elite plate discipline with a .402 on-base percentage. He hit .275 with one home run.
The Angels were so impressed by Schanuel’s bat-to-ball skills, solid defense and work ethic that they essentially handed him the first base job this winter.
“Nolan has earned the right to have the opportunity to come into camp and compete for the first base job,” Angels GM Perry Minasian said, “but with all of our young players, we understand where they are in their development.
“Some might need a lot more at-bats. Some get off to a good start early, then struggle and come back.”
The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Schanuel’s career took a dramatic turn when he was fitted for a contact lens to correct an astigmatism in his right eye before his junior year at FAU.
Schanuel struggled in the Cape Cod League in 2022, but he raked as a junior in 2023, when he led Division I with a 1.483 OPS and hit 19 homers in 59 games.
Schanuel switched from a toe-tap to a leg kick as a college freshman. He holds his hands high above his head in his setup but gets his bat through the hitting zone quickly and efficiently, with minimal extra movement in his swing.
He has more of a hit-over-power profile, but the Angels believe he’ll develop into a 20-homer hitter.
“Knowing him, he’s just never satisfied,” Minasian said. “If you ask him how his month in the big leagues went, he’d tell you it was a good experience and all those things, but it could have been better.
“That’s something we appreciate about him. We want that type of makeup in our clubhouse.”
