No. The other one…
Overview
- Rating: 3.05
- 2024 stats: 12 G, 28.0 IP, 5.46 ERA, 4.35 FIP, 1.683 WHIP, -0.1 bWAR
- Date of birth: May 23, 1997 (age 27 season)
- 2024 earnings: $740,000, pro-rated for MLB time.
- 2025 status: Free agent
2024 overview
I believe I am contractually obliged to begin every article about Logan Allen, by mentioning that he is not the one who is a starting pitcher for the Cleveland Guardians. Confusion is understandable, with both being left-handers (who hit right-handed, incidentally). Indeed, for a couple of years from 2020-22, both were actually in the Guardians organization, after our Logan was dealt from San Diego to Cleveland in 2019, and their Logan was drafted in 2020. Doesn’t appear they were ever on the same team though, which is probably a good thing for the fate of the universe. This year, we got the better one: their Logan had a worse ERA (5.73) and was worth -1.0 bWAR.
[Editor’s note. All future references to Logan Allen are hereby declared to be solely in reference to our one]
Allen was once a very highly-touted young pitcher. Before the 2019 season, he was a consensus top 100 prospect across all baseball, He was coming off a campaign where he had a 2.54 ERA across almost 150 innings in Double- and Triple-A, as a 21-year-old. But for whatever reason, the wheels fell off in 2019, and Logan never recovered. He was dealt mid-season in a three-way deal, and six seasons after those heady rankings, he has now been part of seven different organizations since being drafted. Aged 27, Allen has made fewer than fifty major-league appearances, and owns a 77 ERA+. There is truly no such thing as a pitching prospect.
Logan signed with the Diamondbacks – for the first time, anyway – on December 23. He’s thrown fewer than ten IP in the majors in 2022, and not at all in 2023, spending the year in AAA with Colorado and Seattle. It was just a minor-league contract, so the left-hander was roster depth, but it didn’t take long for him to be needed. On April 17, he was called up after Luis Frias hit the Injured List, with a 40-man spot being opened up for Allen, by Eduardo Rodriguez going onto the 60-day IL. He got into action the next day, and… immediately took the L in his D-backs debut. Though Allen was fine, allowing one run over 4.2 innings in long relief of Ryne Nelson: his run just happened to be the first in a 5-0 loss.
His next outing looked better in the box-score, as he became one of the ten D-backs pitchers to pick up a save this year, Allen’s career first. Admittedly, as saves go, this one wasn’t tough: he came in against the Cardinals with a thirteen-run lead. But three scoreless innings are three scoreless innings, even in a 14-1 blowout. So far, with one run on four hits over 7.2 innings, Logan looked like a good pick-up for Arizona. He remained as the long-man in the bullpen through to early June, averaging seven outs per appearance. However, it was very much mop-up work: that save was the only time Allen took the mound, while the D-backs had a lead.
The promising early results didn’t sustain either, with the ERA creeping up. The final straw for the D-backs was Logan’s outing Petco on June 8th, when he was charged with six earned runs in an inning of work. He was designated for assignment the next day, and cleared waivers. He was then assigned to Reno, but declined the assignment becoming a free-agent on June 13th… and promptly signed back with the D-backs three days later. He spent the rest of the season as a starter for the Reno Aces. Over 17 outings there, Logan put up a 5.55 ERA there, which isn’t terrible in the PCL, with a K:BB of 74:36 over 84.2 innings. Allen officially became a free agent again on November 6.
2025 outlook
Left-handed pitchers are always going to have a good shot at finding work, simply because there are relatively fewer of them on the market. That will only go so far, and Allen’s performances over the past few seasons have “minor-league depth” written all over them. The 28 innings he pitched for Arizona this year were actually the second-most work he has had in his career, but 21 strikeouts aren’t an impressive rate. While his 4.35 FIP was more than a run lower than his ERA, it was also almost a run lower than his career FIP. As we continue to mow our way through the replacement level arms (pitchers occupying the bottom thirteen spots on our ranking!), Allen is just another one.
Easy come, easy go.