Nolan Schanuel

Nolan Ryan Schanuel

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 220 lb.
• School Florida Atlantic University
• High School Park Vista Community High School
• Debut August 18, 2023

• Born February 14, 2002 in Boca Raton, FL USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Nolan Schanuel was the first player from the 2023 amateur draft to make it to the majors. He had been selected by the Los Angeles Angels with the 11th overall pick out of Florida Atlantic University and barely a month later, on August 18th, he made his major league debut starting at first base and batting lead-off in a game against the Tampa Bay Rays. It was the third straight draft in which an Angels player had been had been the first to appear in the Show, after P Chase Silseth (from the 2021 draft) the year before, and SS Zach Neto (from 2022) earlier that season. In his debut game, he was in the middle of a rare 6-4-3-2 triple play in the 9th inning, as he relayed to C Logan O'Hoppe to nail down Yandy Díaz at home plate, preserving what was a 6-6 tie at the time. He went 1 for 4 with a walk and two runs scored in the game, which the Angels lost, 9-6, in ten innings.

Schanuel had had a tremendous junior season in college before being drafted, batting .447 in 59 games, with 18 doubles and 19 homers, scoring 70 runs and driving in 64. He played for three different teams in the minors after signing with Los Angeles - the ACL Angels, Inland Empire 66ers and Rocket City Trash Pandas, combining to bat .370/.510/.493 in 21 games. He set a new Angels record by getting a hit in his first ten games after reaching the majors, and by reaching base at least once in his first 16. With the latter, he passed the mark set by Darin Erstad in 1996. While he had only one extra-base hit - a double - at that point, he had definitely shown an exceptional ability to get on base, with an OBP of .427. He ended up at .275 in 29 games, reaching base at least once in every game, with 1 homer and 6 RBIs. After the first week of the 2024 season, he had extended that streak to 35 games, making the third longest from the start of a career after Alvin Davis (47) and Truck Hannah (38). On April 5th, Schanuel's streak was retroactively ended at 30 games when an infield hit on March 30th was changed to an error on Baltimore Orioles' pitcher Mike Baumann. [1] The streak was still the third longest to begin a career. His ability to take a walk was key to this, as his 20 walks (against just 19 Ks) in 2023 had led to an OBP of .302, and in his first 6 games of 2024, his .188 batting average was boosted by 5 walks to give him an OBP of .391.

Further Reading

• Rhett Bollinger: "Angels select slugging 1B Nolan Schanuel No. 11 overall", July 9, 2023. [2]
• Rhett Bollinger: "https://www.mlb.com/news/ryan-pepiot-throws-seven-scoreless-innings-vs-marlins", mlb.com, September 8, 2023. [3]
• Kiley McDaniel, Jeff Passan and Alden Gonzalez: "Why Los Angeles Angels are calling up Nolan Schanuel", ESPN.com, August 18, 2023. [4]
• Brian Murphy and Jill Painter Lopez: "From '23 Draft to Majors: Angels' Schanuel has wild debut: First baseman scores on Ohtani's slam, turns unassisted DP, finishes rare triple play", mlb.com, August 19, 2023. [5]
• Joe Reedy (Associated Press): "Angels infielder Nolan Schanuel has memorable debut in majors 40 days after being drafted 11th", Yahoo! Sports, August 18, 2023. [6]

Related Sites

• Nolan Schanuel on mlb.com
• Florida Atlantic University bio