Atlanta continues to bolster their high-minors relief pitcher depth with a former Detroit and Oakland pitcher.
Logue, 28, was selected in the ninth round of the 2017 MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays out of the University of Kentucky. He was traded to the Oakland Athletics in March 2022 as part of the Matt Chapman deal, but he was waived after that season and claimed by the Detroit Tigers, with whom he spent the entire 2023 season.
He’s 3-8 with a 6.88 ERA in 17 games (10 starts) in 68 career MLB innings, 57 of which were with Oakland. He has 52 strikeouts (6.9 K/9) and 22 walks (2.9).
The acquisition profiles to be nothing more than high-minors depth for the Braves, and not even that’s guaranteed to be fruitful: Logue put up a 6.58 ERA in 90.1 innings for AAA Toledo (Detroit) last season after a 8.12 ERA in 78.2 innings for AAA Las Vegas (Oakland) the year prior.
Logue was a four pitch pitcher when he started for Oakland in 2022, throwing a four-seam fastball about half the time (90mph), a cutter, curve, and changeup. Working in relief last season, he mostly scrapped the cutter in favor of increased curveball usage, and it appears to have helped – his xERA (expected ERA) was only 3.63, as compared to his actual 7.36. While he didn’t strike out many batters, he also showed low hard-hit rates with the adjusted pitch mix, so there’s something for Atlanta to build off of.
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