The Guardians have informed reporters, including Mandy Bell of MLB.com, that pitching prospect Logan Allen is the planned starter for Sunday’s game, weather permitting. Allen isn’t currently on the 40-man roster and will require a corresponding move.
The 24-year-old Allen, not to be confused with former Guardian Logan Allen, was selected by the Guards in the second round of the 2020 draft. He has since shot up through the minor leagues, racking up huge strikeout totals along the way. In 2021, he pitched in High-A and Double-A, posting a 2.26 ERA in 111 1/3 innings. He struck out 33.2% of batters faced while walking just 6% of them. Last year, he tossed 132 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. His 4.75 combined ERA doesn’t look especially impressive, but the under-the-hood numbers are much nicer. He punched out 31.5% of opponents while giving free passes 9.1% of the time. The ERA was likely inflated by a .335 batting average on balls in play and 68.5% strand rate, both of those being on the unlucky side of typical averages.
Coming into the season, he was ranked the #85 prospect in the game at Baseball America, though he’s since moved up to #80. FanGraphs had him at #57 and ESPN at #53, though he didn’t crack the list at MLB Pipeline. He’s made three starts at Triple-A so far this year with a 1.26 ERA, 34.5% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 57.6% ground ball rate.
The Guardians have been dealing with a few injuries to their rotation this year, with Triston McKenzie on the 60-day injured list due to a teres major strain and Aaron Civale on the 15-day IL due to a strained oblique. That pushed Peyton Battenfield and Hunter Gaddis into the mix, though the latter posted a 7.64 ERA in four starts and was optioned to the minors this week. The Guardians have a seemingly never-ending supply of intriguing pitching prospects and will give Allen a shot at taking that open rotation spot this weekend as long as Mother Nature cooperates.
Since Allen is getting promoted a few weeks into the season, he can’t earn a full year of service time the traditional way. A major league season is 187 days long but a player needs 172 days in the big leagues, or on the injured list, to earn a full year. Allen would fall short of that even if he were to remain in the majors the rest of the way. However, there is one way he could still earn that full year of service, courtesy of the latest collective bargaining agreement. Any player with less than 60 days of MLB service coming into the season who was on at least two of the preseason top 100 prospect lists at Baseball America, ESPN or MLB Pipeline receives a full year if they finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting. This already happened once when Adley Rutschman finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Julio Rodríguez last year. Rutschman had missed the start of the season on the injured list but was able to get a full year of service regardless.
As mentioned, Allen didn’t crack the MLB Pipeline list but was on the BA and ESPN lists, making him eligible for that full year. But doing so would require him not only sticking on the roster, but thriving enough to earn those votes at year’s end.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
There’s another Logan Allen?
Yes – and both of them are southpaws.. .
They’re also both baseball players!!! Coincidence???
Both Logan Allen links go to the same player on the baseball-reference page.
They are playin’ mind games with us
Data – DMC is a rookie writer, mistakes will happen.
The other Logan Allen was a product of the Padres’ system I believe. Not sure if he’s even in baseball any more
They’re still very high on Gaddis. He’s only been called up twice. Last years appearances were an unmitigated disaster, but he had a couple good ones out of 4 this year. CLE is confident he’ll be a staple in the rotation by next year.
This is pending weather, of course. Rain looks likely this weekend and if they get rained out Saturday or Sunday they might end up scrapping those plans. But Allen is super interesting.
Guardians are of course on plan 8 with starters. They’ve gotten starts from Gaddis and Battenfield who weren’t supposed to be with the team yet. Gaddis wasn’t good, and might be ticketed for a bullpen role or DFA now. Neither Civale or McKenzie looks close to being back.
Don’t he Guardians have both Logan Allen’s??
older one in Colorado AAA now
The super hyped padres prospect from 5 years ago who was traded to the Indians for Taylor trammel but then fizzled out in the big leagues but is now reemerging and being repromoted?
Ladies and gentlemen, hold onto your seats. Without further ado our next sensation is about to take center stage in baseball’s biggest arena. You’ve heard of him, but you’ve not seen this version. Give it up for Logan Allen 2.0!!!!!!
I like how the second paragraph starts with and says not to confuse him with the older Allen, but the BR link in the first paragraph links to the older one lmao
First thing I noticed also. Ha!
I wish MLB would act like Hollywood and force players with the same name as another player to choose a “stage name” to make it easier for fans.
Remember Ervin Santana? His real first name wasn’t Ervin. Wasn’t his middle name either. He just didn’t want to get confused for Johan (his actual first name) Santana.
I never knew that. I wonder why he just didn’t go by his middle name of Ramon.
Then they foist full names on us at random times in a player’s career. Later in his career all we heard when he did something great was “Michael Jack Schmidt”, as if there was another young 3B prospect on the A’s major league roster named Mike Schmidt which there wasn’t. Now we have either 4 Luis Ortiz’ or 4 Luis Garcias in the league, and we’re left to just sort it out.
The first Logan Allen link currently is indeed confusing, since it is the older Logan Allen.
You warn us not to be confused and then you use the same link for both players!
It’s bad enough they have that double first name thing going…
Where does Cleveland get all these pitchers from??
Every year, they seemingly pull out 2 or 3 starters out of nowhere..
Obviously, it’s because I’m not all that familiar with their minor league system, but still..They’re like the Dodgers with their position prospects, the Braves with their bullpen, and seemingly half the Rays entire team..lol
And while they dazzle you with their “out of nowhere” prospects, the mad pitching scientists in the CLE system are busily rewiring Toukie Toussaint and prepping him for his reintroduction later this year. Kinda like the lab in Stranger Things.
This is why middle initials were invented. Logan S. Allen vs Logan T. Allen. In cases like this the use of middle initials is customarily acceptable.
He has around 450 million reasons to stick with baseball if it doesn’t work out with the Guardians.
Didn’t the other Logan Allen play for the Indians? This one’s a Guardian
Jgw – Logan Shane Allen was drafted by the Red Sox and pitched for both the Indians and the Guardians. He was born in Palm Beach, Florida.
Logan Taylor Allen was drafted by the Indians but has yet to play in MLB. He was born in Deltona, Florida.
And there’s also Logan Allen the actor from Sweet Magnolias. He was born in West Palm Beach, Florida.