The Cleveland Indians continued an active offseason today with their latest acquisition, 32-year old LHP Boone Logan:
Sources: #Indians in agreement with free-agent LHP Boone Logan, pending physical.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 2, 2017
Tribe's deal with Boone Logan is a big league deal for one year with a club option.
— paul hoynes (@hoynsie) February 2, 2017
Logan, who will be entering his twelfth MLB season with his fifth team in 2017, appeared 66 times last season for the Colorado Rockies. Over 46.1 innings, he allowed 27 hits and 19 earned runs while walking 20 and striking out 57 (good for an ERA+ of 133). He’s very much a LOOGY; over the span of his career, right-handed hitters have a .855 OPS against him, whereas left-handed hitters hold a .670 OPS. Rosenthal dug a little deeper to showcase just how good he was against LHB last season:
Left-handed hitters vs. Boone Logan last season: .142/.222/.255 in 106 at-bats. Last five seasons: .215/.293/.341 in 419 at-bats. #Indians
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 2, 2017
To put that into perspective, Andrew Miller held lefties to a slash line of .181/.189/.333 in 2016.
His bread and butter is his 84mph slider that, according to Brook’s Baseball, has more of a 12-6 motion and gets a lot of hitters to swing and miss. He pairs it with a sinker and four seam (both at 94mph) and a changeup (87mph).
With a bullpen of Otero, Shaw, Miller, and Allen, Cleveland looked good except for the notable lack of a legitimate, proven LOOGY (Miller gets everyone out, so he doesn’t count). With the addition of Logan, suddenly the bullpen seems to have very few weak points. The final numbers haven’t been released for the contract, but this looks to be a great addition for the reigning AL Champions.