According to Ken Rosenthal of FOX on twitter, the Indians have come to an agreement with left handed reliever Boone Logan. Financial information has not yet been announced, but Paul Hoynes has stated that it will be a one year deal with an option for 2018.
[protected-iframe id=”a3dfb0e2b75de50b72e550c70a98a42f-114320562-107853376″ info=”hash” class=”twitter-tweet”]The 11 year vet has come a long way since breaking into the big leagues with Chicago at the age of 21 in 2006 and has been remarkably consistent playing in Colorado the last two seasons, worth 0.6 WAR each year. Logan first really broke out with the Yankees in 2010 when he posted a 2.93 ERA in 40 innings and he’s averaged 40 innings in 60 appearances per season ever since. A LOOGY of extreme proportions, Logan allowed a .142/.222/.255 line against left handers last year compared to .211/.338/.421 against right handed hitters. Similarly, he has walked right handed batters in 16.2% of plate appearances compared to 7.6% of left handed hitters while striking out 25% of righties compared to 33.6% of lefties.
The need for a left handed specialist beyond Andrew Miller became apparent in the 2016 post-season as Miller often came into games as early as the 5th inning to face a left handed heavy portion of a line-up in a close game as there were no other options. During the regular season, any pitcher would break down with sustained use of the type Miller sustained during the play-offs and unquestionably the Indians would need another left handed specialist to keep Miller both at a reasonable number of innings and appearances during the regular season.
At the same time, the Indians were obviously not comfortable with their current options when it came down to winning regular season games. Kyle Crockett had an impressive 2.33 FIP and 9.6 K/9 in limited action in 2016 and has a career ERA of 3.25 thanks mostly to his 1.80 in 2014 when he pitched the majority of his innings. Without any given reason, Terry Francona has been reluctant to use Crockett (just 16 IP in 2016) and if he won’t pitch him, they obviously need another option. One of those was 2016 rule 5 draft pick, Hoby Milner, but he has only 16 AAA innings under his belt and will almost certainly be returned to Philadelphia now that Logan has been added.
The only other real options for the LOOGY role were starting pitchers Ryan Merritt and Shawn Morimando, but for the moment the plan seems to be to keep them as starters. This move is unfortunate for Crockett, who has never shown a reason to believe he won’t be successful (career line of .234/.296/.303 vs LHH), but it is another all in move. Rather than hope Crockett can take on a full season’s work load, the Indians have signed a 31 year old who has pitched full seasons in six of the last seven and eight of the last ten. Should he falter, Crockett will always be there waiting as will be Merritt and Morimando, but until then this move makes the Indians even stronger contenders for their second straight American League pennant.
With this signing (pending a physical) the Indians bullpen now consists of Cody Allen, Andrew Miller, Bryan Shaw, Boone Logan and Dan Otero. This leaves between two and three spots open to competition depending on if they want to have a seven or eight man bullpen. Assuming Zach McAllister will be included, that possibly will leave just one spot for Shawn Armstrong, Milner, Crockett, Austin Adams, Joseph Colon, Perci Garner, Nick Goody, Travis Banwart, Carlos Frias and Steve Delabar to compete for. Of course, chances are one of these players (Adams) will be cut to make room on the 40 man roster for Boone.
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