Meet The New Guy: Logan Gillaspie

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Logan Gillaspie, and he comes from frontier country! Born and raised in Bakersfield, California, Gillaspie went undrafted out of high school and spent the next several years bouncing around various independent and community college leagues in the great American West. He went from Oxnard, California to Monterey and Sonoma County before moving on to Salina, Kansas, Helena, Montana, and Utica, Michigan (go East Side Diamond Hoppers!), all before signing his first contract with an affiliated team. I bet this guy has some great dive bar recommendations in every faded, post-industrial town west of the Mississippi. The Red Sox just picked him up off the waiver wire after he was dropped by the Baltimore Orioles.

What position does he play?

He’s a right-handed relief pitcher.

Is he any good?

He’s an undrafted free agent reliever on waivers so, yeah, you know the deal here. But, like every pitcher Chaim Bloom picks up on waivers, there are some promising things about his game.

First, even though he’s almost exclusively a reliever, he has a starter’s arsenal, with a fastball, slider, change, and curve. And second, that fastball’s got some life to it. It sits in the mid-90s (dialing up to 98 MPH), he throws it for strikes, and it averages 10 inches of horizontal run in on righties, compared to the league average of 7 inches.

He looked pretty decent in the 17.1 innings he threw for the Orioles last season, walking just 3 batters, allowing only a single homer, and maintaining a 3.12 ERA. He was good enough in that short stint that the Orioles made him part was a part of their Opening Day bullpen this season, but he struggled out the gate and found himself walking more hitters than he has since his days with the Sonoma Stompers and Salina Stampede way back in 2018.

He was demoted back to AAA in late April and was unable to regain his form, as he currently carries a 4.71 ERA in 36.1 AAA innings this year.

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Desperately trying to maintain his dignity?

Show me a cool highlight.

Here he is striking out a bunch of dudes last year. Fast-forward to the 48-second mark to see Rafael Devers flail helplessly at a changeup.

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

He almost certainly doesn’t have one, but look for the Sox to try to tinker with his pitch shapes and control and give him a chance to win a bullpen spot in Fort Myers next year.