Boone Logan reaches end of disappointing debut season with Rockies

Rockies reliever Boone Logan was transferred to the 60-day disabled list on Monday to make room for infielder Rafael Ynoa on the 40-man roster, writes MLB.com's Cody Ulm.

The move put a merciful end to an awful debut season in purple pinstripes for Logan. The 30-year-old left-hander posted a 6.84 ERA and 5.14 FIP in 25 innings spanning 35 games. Worse, Logan was terrible against left-handed batters, surrendering a .318/.392/.545 line in those situations.

Signing a guy who entered the season having posted exactly league-average production (100 ERA+) since breaking into the big leagues in 2006 to a three-year, $16.5 million deal was simply not a good move. It wasn't at the time, and it looks even worse now.

That said, there are plenty of reasons to believe Logan won't be this bad going forward.

First, Logan maintained his reputation of being a high-strikeout reliever who generally whiffs enough batters to overcome an elevated walk rate. In his previous three seasons before signing with Colorado, Logan struck out an average of 10.9 batters per nine innings while walking 3.6. This season, Logan's walks went up a bit -- to 4.0 BB/9 -- but so did his strikeouts; he led the team with 11.5 SO/9, matching his rate from a year ago.

So, it's safe to say that a lack of strikeouts matched with an excess of walks -- the problem plaguing a guy like, say, Rex Brothers -- was not the issue for Logan. Rather, the problem was the rate at which balls in play fell for hits. Logan entered 2013 with a .327 BABIP-against. In 2014, that figure jumped to .391. Coors Field is and will always be responsible for some of that jump, and a ridiculously high 29 percent line drive rate can also be attributed. But Logan also generated more ground balls than he had in any season since 2009, and it's not out of the question for that tendency to remain because of the Rockies' well-documented obsession for inducing grounders.

Those are signs that point to future improvement, as is the fact that Logan should be healthy after a long period of rest and shortage of bullets used this season. But will that be enough to justify how much Logan will earn through the 2016 season? Probably not. And, especially not if the injuries don't heal with extra rest.

In short, Logan will be an effective reliever next year and the year after, assuming health is there. But he won't be effective enough to warrant what is literally all of the money.

More links

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