Logue was on the periphery of the major league squad for the first part of the season.
Zach Logue existed on the Atlanta Braves’ roster at exactly two points this season. He pitched a bunch for Triple-A Gwinnett, and actually made it back to the majors in 2024… just after the Braves had cut ties with him.
How acquired
Logue joined the Braves organization in December 2023 on a minor league contract, after spending the 2023 season with Detroit. The Braves were his fourth big-league organization: he was drafted by the Blue Jays in 2017, traded to Oakland in the Matt Chapman deal, and claimed by the Tigers on waivers before electing minor league free agency after the 2023 season.
What were the expectations?
There were essentially no expectations for Logue other than to exist in the organization as depth.
Logue had a brief major league track record that wasn’t at all inspiring: in ten starts and four relief appearances with Oakland in 2022, he was profoundly horrible… and was even worse in Triple-A that year. He was also horrible in Triple-A with the Tigers in 2023, and the lone bright spot was that he managed an 88 xFIP- in 11 major league innings that season. The Braves kept him in a swingman role at Gwinnett and while he was better at the Triple-A level there than he had been with either Oakland or Detroit, he was still pretty bad (4.57 xFIP).
Sometimes, there are random Quad-A guys where you can squint and see upside, but you’ve gotta do so real hard to see much of a major league role for Logue. Sure, he has a reasonably deep pitch mix, and his curve is a really strange pitch that might throw guys off balance… but he’s also a soft-tossing heavy sink lefty in a league and environment that doesn’t really know what to do with those guys anymore.
What went right?
Logue helped the organization out by covering 90 2⁄3 innings in Gwinnett (and another 3 2⁄3 in Mississippi) without pitching quite so poorly that they felt the need to look for another option. That’s something, even though the 4.01 FIP and 4.57 xFIP aren’t what you want to see from a guy in his fifth stint at Triple-A.
What went wrong?
Logue did not appear for the major league club, although he did join the major league roster for two separate stints, but for a total of less than a week. He did pitch two innings (and was charged with four runs, including a homer, despite a 4/0 K/BB ratio) for the Dodgers later in the year.
Mostly, though, the issue for Logue was more or less the same as for the rest of his career: he’s simply not doing well enough, in general, to warrant a real look on a major league roster. He’ll be 29 for most of next season, so time is running out a bit.
2025 Outlook
Logue will likely continue to be a journeyman, but being picked up by the Braves and the Dodgers means that there might be something there that more analytics-savvy teams are picking up on, so he may get some more chances and perhaps figure out how to maximize what they are identifying — even if, fun curveball aside, it’s not clear exactly what that would be.
One thing that might help is trying Logue exclusively as a reliever. He’s been stretched out enough to work as a starter or swingman, but hasn’t done anything particularly worthwhile in that role, and maybe focusing on something other than sinking the ball while eating innings could pay dividends. Or not.