Right-hander Logan Boyer was selected by the Dodgers in the 11th round of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft out of San Diego State University. He was an interesting selection but fit the Dodgers pattern of trying to get what we might call a steal in the 11th round having signed the 10th rounder for a small signing bonus. He, in fact, signed for $297,500 which was $172,500 above the slot and was the 6th highest signing bonus among the 30 draft selections signed by the Dodgers. It was only minimally below the signing bonus for 5th round selection right-hander Jack Little.
Boyer was born in Chandler, Arizona and attended Hamilton High School in his home town. At Chandler, he spent his time behind the plate actually pitching only 10 innings in his high school career. Perfect Game posted the following report on Boyer in 2016.
“Logan Boyer is a 2016 C/RHP with a 6-3 205 lb. frame from Chandler, AZ who attends Hamilton HS. Large well-proportioned build, very good present strength. Surprisingly quick actions defensively for his size, has a quick transfer throwing and gains ground well with his feet, compact arm action with lots of arm strength, strong hands and receives the ball well, will get out front receiving at times, 1.84 best pop time. Two-way prospect gets a big downhill angle on an upper 80’s fastball, topped out at 90 mph, works to the bottom of the zone well, showed good feel for his secondary pitches, both change up and curveball flashed potential. Good student, verbal commitment to San Diego State.”
San Diego State assistant coach Joe Oliveira saw pitching potential, however, when he watched Boyer throw one of those innings when his team was short-handed at a showcase event so he signed on as a pitcher for his college debut.
In his freshman year, he excelled in relief, although in a limited sample, posting a 1.46 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP over 12.1 innings in 10 appearances. He struck out 12 and walked 6. His next two seasons were not highly successful as he made just seven starts in 13 appearances. However, his innings pitched with the Aztecs were limited to just 45 over his three seasons due to injury. His arm is a fresh arm that the Dodgers seem to target regardless of any issues it might have had.
On a rather cold night in February 2018 something just started tightening up in his forearm and then in his words, “it balled up”. Naturally, he feared the worst from his doctor’s report. That is TJ surgery. He was fortunate when the phrase did not come from the lips of his physician who made a diagnosis of “cubital tunnel syndrome”. The good news was that it did not require surgery. The other news was that the nerve through the elbow was inflamed and although it didn’t require surgery, it did require a long period of rest. It was about a year before Boyer got back into action.
His 2019 season also came to a quick ending as after four starts he was shut down due to a shoulder strain. Boyer was naturally upset by the recurrence of an arm issue but throughout his ordeal, he tried to stay positive while missing valued time with his teammates.
“It wasn’t so much frustrating as upsetting,” Boyer said. “You put so much hard work in that when something goes wrong with your shoulder or arm, it’s almost like, ‘Why does it have to do this again?’ But, like I say, you’ve just got to accept it.”
The 6’3”/215-lb. a former teammate of Cody Bellinger at Hamilton High school in Chandler might be that steal that has been mentioned. He has a fastball that can reach 94-96 mph and has what one scout termed “electric” stuff. Before his 2019 season was cut short by a shoulder strain he was regarded as a top-five round talent had he remained healthy. Perfect Game suggests as he gains arm strength he may touch triple digits. His future development does depend on the health of his arm and his ability to better master the strike zone. Boyer’s longer-term goal would be to reunite with Bellinger in Dodger Blue.
It’s hard to get a comfortable at-bat against him,” SDSU head coach Mark Martinez said. “What Logan has to do is manage his pitch count, pitch to contact. You hear that about power pitchers all the time. If he could be more efficient about what he’s doing, he’s going to extend his outing.”
In January 2019 Baseball America selected Logan Boyer as the Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year. That was before his strained shoulder in 2019.
“The top arm on a deep San Diego State pitching staff, Boyer works off of a fastball in the 91-94 mph range and gets up to 95 mph with life. He compliments the pitch with a hard slider and changeup that helped him rack up 27 strikeouts in just 19 innings last season. He has the stuff to miss bats, but the biggest question will be how regularly he can run out to the mound after dealing with injuries in 2018. Boyer also thrived as a freshman, posting a 1.46 ERA, but that still came in just a 12-inning sample. With no track record of holding innings over a season in the Mountain West, picking Boyer here is risky. But he’s always been effective when he’s taken the mound, including a 2017 stint in the Alaska Summer League as a 19-year-old when he posted a 1.44 ERA over 31.1 innings, striking out 13.79 batters per nine innings. “
Back in 2017 Baseball America also posted: ”Logan Boyer, RHP, Anchorage Bucs (So., San Diego State) Boyer had arguably the most impressive numbers of any pitcher in the league this summer, striking out 48 hitters in just 31.1 innings…” He was selected to the First All Team in the Alaska League that summer.
As a bit of a distraction, I have posted a link to an article I wrote back in January 2014. At that time I had just learned about the Alaska Baseball League.
Back to Logan Boyer. There was little doubt he would sign after being selected by the Dodgers although he could have returned to San Diego State for his senior year.
“It was a day for dreams,” said Boyer, who was listening to an online stream of the draft when he heard his name. “It was awesome. I loved it.
“I’m going to sign,” he said. “Ever since I was a little boy and started playing baseball it has been a dream of mine to sign a pro contract. Now that it’s happened, I’m ready to get started.”
Boyer did not make his professional debut after signing with the Dodgers last June most likely preparing his arm for a debut in 2020. He will turn 22 later this month so one might guess he will begin the season in the short-season Pioneer League or after an extended spring training join the Loons in the Midwest League. It would seem that at least initially he will pitch in relief which might be the career goal for him in light of his arm issues.
Discussion (53)
Disagree, not disagreeable
From Fangraphs:
The deal will definitely pay off for Los Angeles because it’s structured so that it can’t not — Guggenheim Baseball Management probably pays more for paper supplies each year than they’ve committed in guaranteed dollars here — but that still leaves the somewhat more interesting question unanswered: will Nelson, the human being, be any good at playing baseball next year? Shoulder and elbow injuries are notoriously difficult to recover from, while simultaneously being excellent predictors of similar injuries in the future, so in terms of a first approximation, the prognosis here isn’t promising. That said, Nelson is tall (6-foot-6), relatively young (30), and motivated. Stranger things have happened than a bounce-back year with a new team.
The most likely path to success for Nelson runs through the bullpen. I have no doubt that the Dodgers — and presumably Nelson — would prefer that he comes into spring training and out-competes, say, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin for that fifth spot in the Los Angeles rotation. But if that doesn’t work — and even if it does — it may be worth considering simplifying Nelson’s repertoire to just his fastball and his above-average slider and giving him a shot to pitch out the bullpen in long relief.
As Jack Trent Dorfman noted in his writeup over at Fansided, this scenario bears a number of similarities to the Dodgers’ signing of Brandon Morrow back in 2017. Like Nelson, Morrow had pitched only sporadically in the years prior to his arrival in Los Angeles (his years in the wilderness were in fact even longer, extending back to 2013) and like Nelson, Morrow featured little bullpen experience at the time and a standard four-pitch starter mix. In 2017 for the Dodgers, Morrow simplified to his fastball and his slider, added a cutter, and generated a 1.55 FIP in relief. Morrow is, I think, about the best-case scenario you could expect for Nelson and the Dodgers.
Here’s how I look at Ramos and Nelson: They don’t exist. They are not in my plans… but if they pan out… well, that’s another story.
Jeff Luhnow’s lineage goes back to St. Louis and I am certain they cheated in the playoffs as well.
I can prove it… just let me waterboard him for 20 minutes.
I was listening to MLB. Radio today and Ken Rosenthal said that Alex Cora was the mastermind behind the cheating.
Here’s the link to the ESPN story about the Red Sox cheating in 2018.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28440015/report-red-sox-used-replay-room-steal-signs-2018-season
Roberts and Rios for Cash
Dustin Nosler wrote this on December 27
http://dodgersdigest.com/2019/12/27/jimmy-nelson-could-be-an-ideal-low-risk-signing-for-dodgers-to-bolster-the-rotation/
Enough of this working around the edges. It’s time for crazy trades. I’m bored.
Seager and Muncy for Glyber Torres and Chad Green.
Ruiz, Grove, Rios, ?? for Betts
LF Pederson
3B Turner
1B Bellinger
RF Betts
2B Torres
SS Lux
C Smith
CF Verdugo
Great post DC! My grandson’s name is Logan, and because of that I was partial to Boyer when he was drafted. Here’s hoping that he fully recovers from his injuries. I saw him pitch at SD State, and he had absolutely filthy stuff. If that translates to the majors, we have a burgeoning stud.
I like the Jimmy Nelson signing, for the reasons outlined by AC. Low risk, high reward signing. Hope he pans out too. When he was good, he was very good.
Edubray Ramos has one of the best sliders in the game by a relief pitcher. His problem has been spin-rate on his fastball. If someone can fix that, he might be something. Again, why not?
Jeff Passan of ESPN.com wrote this:
” In recent years, the knowledge gap has narrowed between ahead-of-the-curve teams and those behind in analytics. Multiple front-office people believe the game is at a place where the divide is about to get bigger again — and that the differentiator will be in player development. What’s scariest is that behemoths like the Yankees and Dodgers are among the teams at the forefront of this.”
This is what I’ve been seeing now for the past few years, at least as far as position players are concerned.
Now the question is: will the Dodgers start to push pitchers up from the minors to MLB with same impact and numbers that we’ve been seeing among position players?
It is my understanding that Jimmy Nelson was released by the Brewers because he wanted to remain a starter and they wanted him in the pen. He has evidently changed his mind and accepted the Dodgers offer which was less than some other teams offered. I think he’s bullpen… PERIOD!
There’s no downside to this… only upside. Worst case: he doesn’t make the team. Best case: He recovers 3 MPH after a winter of rehab and is a lockdown reliever.
Another signing. Ramos. Turning into a huge day!
This is a very inexpensive lottery ticket and Nelson was putting up very good numbers his last season + in Milwaukee, but the Dodgers have had worse luck with pitching reclamation projects than in finding position players who were diamonds in the rough.
There’s a big difference between Taylor and Muncy, who were not supposed to be any good but turned out to be good, and the likes of Brandon McCarthy or Brandon Beachy, who were good once but were injured and was never really any good after that. Brandon Morrow was lightening in a bottle – he parlayed a good partial season with the Dodgers into a 2 year contract with the Cubs – ask the Cubs if he turned out to be a good bet. (There’s a trend here – too many Brandons.)
Again- Nelson was good once and his new deal is cheap, but don’t expect much.
After CT3, Muncy, Morrow, etc, I’ll never question a Friedman reclamation project. Let’s see if another lottery ticket comes thru!
Inching closer to going over the CBT as per Kasten!
Jimmy Nelson !
Print the tickets.
Dodgers sign Jimmy Nelson.
Regarding injuries, some times therapy etc. works and players actually produce.
Thx for the info on Wood AC. It will be interesting to see what Manfred does with this mess. I’ve got to subscribe to the Athletic
Jeff Passan is reporting that MLB will probably make their decision on the Astros within the next couple of weeks. Front office personnel as well as Hinch may be in the crosshairs along with a large fine but no players are expected to be penalized.
My question: Why?
They were guilty of violating a league rule but don’t get penalized?
The next time a pitcher is found to be doctoring the ball, someone should shake a finger at him and then suspend someone in the front office? Front office guys should definitely be punished but the players shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.
Enjoyed your article DC. Hope that Logan Boyer gets to reunite with Cody Bellinger. That would be awesome. We shall see and I will be cheering for him. As far as the Alaskan Baseball League goes, I was amazed that they played on ice. Hope the refs wore skates. The alumni list is very notable, players like Rick Monday, Tom Seaver, Mark McGuire and one of my favs, Mickey Hatcher, just to name a few. Bet there are some great stories about those games.
They didn’t have to. They just let Roberts mangle the 8th inning by not bringing in Maeda and Kolarek to pitch to to Rendon and Soto! And we keep harping on Houston cheating against Darvish and Kershaw in 17. But Wood threw a wonderful game 4. Was Houston not stealing signs against Wood but just Kersh and Darvish or is Wood’s stuff so good it didn’t matter.
After learning about the cheating Astros in 2017, it is now being reported by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, that three anonymous people who were part of the Red Sox organization in 2018 said some players would go to the replay room during games to gain information regarding their opponents’ signs.” Teams were allowed to use the replay room to review plays to determine if a play should be challenged but not for stealing signs.
There is an article in The Athletic that discusses it. I did not copy from the article, Bluto.
Cheated by Houston in 2017. And now by Boston in 2018.
Let’s wait to see what the Nationals did in 2019.
They know things we don’t. Going so far over slot tells me they are going with the high reward part more so than the high risk. He didn’t pitch after he was signed in preparation for this season. I trust the player development team to win more than they lose.
Think Caleb Ferguson and as Mark mentioned Walker Buehler. They all don’t work out and we are still waiting on Morgan Cooper. Another risk/reward draftee is Braidyn Fink coming off TJ surgery and signed well over slot in the 19th round.
When you don’t get to draft before the late selections in each round taking a chance on players who have been injured but would have gone much higher without health issues seems to be a pretty good strategy.
That sounds like a lot of arm and shoulder problems. Are they things a person grows out of it was it a wasted 11th round pick?