Angels call up 2023 first-round draft pick Nolan Schanuel

The Angels' Nolan Schanuel celebrates after scoring on a double by Brandon Drury.

Aug. 18, 2023 Updated 9:27 PM PT

Nolan Schanuel received a call Thursday night with a once-in-40-years opportunity. The Angels’ 2023 first-round draft pick would play at Angel Stadium on Friday, getting called up 40 days into his minor league career.

Oh, and he’d be batting leadoff ahead of Shohei Ohtani.

The 21-year-old first baseman accomplished the fastest major league promotion in four decades. And he became the first Angel to bat leadoff in his major league debut since Mike Colangelo in 1999.

“I’ve dreamed about playing in major league since I was 4 years old,” Schanuel said. “It’s been a goal of mine, a dream of mine, but I didn’t think it would be in 40 days.”

Schanuel got his first hit in the seventh inning and tacked on two more achievements during Friday’s 9-6 loss by scoring two runs — one on Ohtani’s second career grand slam — and participating in the Angels’ first triple play since 1997, nearly five years before he was born.

“That was a nice first day for him,” manager Phil Nevin said after the game. Schanuel, who earlier compared his ability to relive at-bats to “Rain Man,” confessed he couldn’t remember his first one Friday (he struck out swinging).

Nevin recalled Schanuel told him, ‘’I kept looking down to make sure I was in the batter’s box.”

Schanuel batted leadoff again Saturday in the first game of a doubleheader and had another hit and scored in the Angels’ 7-6 win.

Nevin and general manager Perry Minasian kept expectations low for the rookie before his first game. While he was stepping in for first baseman C.J. Cron, who landed on the injured list with lower back inflammation, this was all about gaining experience.

“I told him, ‘Don’t feel like you’re coming here to be a savior for us. Come here and have fun and play ball,’” Nevin said before the game.

Added Minasian: “Just go play. I think that’s the expectation here.”

They were confident in Schanuel’s double-A statistics — hitting .339 with an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of .955 over 16 games with Rocket City — and said calling him up was the best move. Schanuel hit .370 overall in the minors with one home run, 15 RBIs and a 1.003 OPS.

“He’s hit righties, he’s hit lefties, he’s hit velocities,” Minasian said. “So one, we feel like he can handle it. Two, the experience will be great for him. Similar to what we’ve done with some other young players.”

Skipping the average two or three years of learning in the minors, Schanuel is on a rare path but one in line with the team’s recent trend of quickly promoting young players. Shortstop Zach Neto was called up in April after 42 minor league games.

“And a lot of the development, in my opinion, in today’s game is at the big-league level,” Minasian said. “It’s so different than the minor leagues and what you see on a day-to-day basis. From an experience standpoint, there’s no replacement.”

The 6-foot-4 rookie from Florida brings the number of active Angels players born in the 2000s to four alongside Neto, 22, and 23-year-olds Logan O’Hoppe and Chase Silseth.

Schanuel said he didn’t sleep after receiving the call Thursday night, instead resting on his flight Friday morning. But once he arrived in Anaheim, he stayed grounded in his routine.

“I have a little added nerves today, but it’s baseball,” Schanuel said before Friday’s game. “I’ll just slow myself down once that first pitch is thrown. I think it’ll start going into slow motion. I might black out a little bit, but I’m ready to play.”

There was no technical reason for his quick acceleration, the rookie said: “I didn’t change anything from what I was doing six months ago in college, and just continued to play my game.”

Schanuel struggled last summer while playing for the Cap Cod league Hyannis Harbor Hawks, powering through an undiagnosed astigmatism that had developed in his right eye and hindered his vision.

“What stands out to me about him is I saw him last summer, I saw him handle struggling,” Harbor Hawks coach Eric Beattie said. “And that’s what proved to me that he was going to be a great professional hitter, is his reaction to the struggle wasn’t to panic and make complete overhaul changes. He just made some slight adjustments until he got himself in a great place.”

After receiving medical attention and a contact for his right eye, Schanuel turned heads in his 2023 season at Florida Atlantic, batting .447 with 18 doubles, four triples, 19 home runs and 64 RBIs. He made his double-A debut on July 29 and after playing with Rocket City on Thursday, getting two hits and scoring a run, it was time for the big leagues.

Throughout Schanuel’s rapidly accelerating career, he has had one constant — his family has attended every home game he has played since age 4. It took his mom and friends a bit to believe him when he called with the news he was called up Thursday night, but they booked tickets to California and departed the next morning.

“It means the world to me,” Schanuel said of having his family, girlfriend and her family and friends in Anaheim to watch his debut.