Milwaukee Brewers: Reliving the Boone Logan era

The Milwaukee Brewers officially released lefty reliever Boone Logan. While a reunion could conceivably occur in the future, this marks the end of Logan’s Brewers career. Let’s take a look at the highs and lows of the Boone Logan era in Milwaukee.

Boone Logan signed a one-year contract worth $1.875 million with an option on January 5th, 2018. He finally put pen to paper after a ‘will he, won’t he’ that started before Christmas and ran through the New Year. The Milwaukee Brewers had their man. They added another left-hander to their bullpen. This move would allow Josh Hader to work multiple innings, while still providing manager Craig Counsell with a LOOGY for the late innings. This marks the high point of Logan’s time in Milwaukee. The time with optimism.

What went wrong first?

After working his way through the six week slog that is Spring Training, Logan was diagnosed with discomfort in his shoulder and triceps on March 21st. After a few days in limbo, he was officially ruled out for six weeks with a triceps strain.

Logan rehabbed his left triceps and went through the necessary rehab appearance schedule to come back on May 10th.

Then what happened?

Well, then Logan had to actually pitch.

In 16 appearances with the Milwaukee Brewers, Logan struck out 14 batters. He also walked 10 batters and gave up three homers. His 6.03 xFIP indicates that his 5.91 actual ERA was actually worse than it looked.

Brought on as a lefty killer, left-handed batters posted a .554 wOBA against Logan in an extremely small sample size.

The good news for Logan is that his velocity wasn’t down. He was struggling with command. Logan averaged 94.0 MPH on his fastball with the Brewers. That’s actually up from 93.9 MPH last year.

The bad news is that the Brewers can’t afford to allow him to work his way back into form, and had to release him.

What happens next?

Logan either finds another team, or he goes home until signing a contract next fall. Given the state of bullpens outside of Milwaukee, there’s a good chance that Logan finds a home in the next few weeks. If Logan chooses to wait until next fall, he’ll probably get stuck with a Minor League deal with an an invite to camp. Joining a team now is Logan’s best chance to rebuild his value.

Next: Should the Brewers add an outfielder before the deadline?

Logan was brought in to do a job, and he didn’t do it as well as the team thought he should. The Milwaukee Brewers have an insanely deep bullpen, and couldn’t afford to keep a veteran on a short term contract around. It happens. It’s sad, but it happens. The team has already moved on. He’s hoping that Logan finds success elsewhere…but not against the Brewers.