Logan VanWey has faced his fair share of adversity on the baseball diamond, and while that might seem like a bad thing, it has prepared him for perhaps the biggest journey of his life—the road to the show.
VanWey is a former Webb City High School and Missouri Southern State University standout who is now entrenched in the Houston Astros minor league system since being signed as an undrafted free agent in 2022.
VanWey, a RHP, has shot through the Astros’ system, pitching in rookie level ball in 2022 before seeing action at High-A (Asheville), Double-A (Corpus Christi) and Triple-A (Sugarland) last season. He totaled a 3.72 ERA, a 1.49 WHIP and .232 opponents batting average in 2023.
Last season, VanWey set career highs for the Space Cowboys. He appeared in 60 games, pitched 72.2 innings and totaled 98 strikeouts to go along with a 3.22 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and .225 BAA. There was a point last season where he thought he might get the call to join the Houston Astros’ bullpen.
“You know, last year I thought there were a couple times where I might get called up,” VanWey said. “ It just never happened, but it's just part of it. There's a business aspect to it also. This is my Rule-5 year. They have to put me on the 40-man roster to protect me, but I just have to keep waiting out the storm and build on last year, which was the most I've ever thrown, appearance-wise, and I was healthy for all of them. So, that was good. But, coming to the camp, it's always in the back of your mind. You could do as good as you want, but there might not be room for you.”
Although the call never came, VanWey used that additional adversity to prepare himself heading into camp this year, and that preparation has paid off. After getting an invitation to the big league spring training camp, VanWey currently has an ERA of .82, 10 strikeouts and one save in 11 innings pitched this spring. With the way he has worked on the mound, there is a very real chance one of the spots in the pen might belong to VanWey upon conclusion of spring training.
“I think there's a couple spots open,” VanWey said. “There's always a spot open, you know, in the bullpen. I just kind of came into (camp) knowing that if I do what I did last year, I'll make a bigger name for myself. If something happens, it's great. If it doesn't, you know, I think eventually this season I'll get my shot.”
Regardless of how things turn out this spring, one thing is for certain. VanWey will always be grateful to the Astros for giving him the opportunity to continue playing baseball. They didn’t have to give him a shot, but now that they have, VanWey wants to reward their judgment by pitching meaningful innings for them this season.
“You know, you never know how an organization sees a free agent or a bullpen guy,” VanWey said. “But since Day 1, I can tell the Astros have always really seen me as a guy they think they can use in the future and they have a lot of confidence in. … So, anytime I'm out there, I'm representing myself as well as representing the Astros and I’m trying to show why they made the right decision, why everyone else kind of messed up.
VanWey knows he has put himself in a good position with the organization. There are plenty of players who may come from a higher pedigree, but the proof is in the pudding as they say.
“There's always first rounders and second rounders that they gave the money to who was the dude at an SEC school or whatever D1 school they went to,” VanWey said. “And those are usually guys that a majority of time are going to get all of the opportunities. But since Day 1, I’ve shown I can pitch. They've, they've had a lot of trust in me. They've given me a lot of opportunities.”
One thing that sticks out about VanWey when he is on the bump—his deceptive delivery. And he’s gotten plenty of questions about it from the media at every level he’s pitched in the pros.
“I've had a lot of questions about,” VanWey said with a laugh. “I love it. I keep telling people that I’ve always felt very smooth (in my delivery). I've never felt like there's a real hitch in my delivery or something. I've gone back, looked at videos of me throwing when I was a kid as far back as tee-ball. I've always just kind of had a unique way of throwing the baseball, and I'm kind of glad that we've never really tried to go away from that because that's one thing that helps me a lot in my delivery. I kind of hide the ball whenever my front foot hits and I still have another half second to deliver it.”
VanWey added that he didn’t even really know he had a deceptive delivery until he reached the collegiate level.
“I didn't really notice it until, I think, I played summer ball in college that I was throwing, and some of the guys, whenever I was done, were like, ‘Hey, man, how do you throw like that?’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean? I feel like I'm throwing normal. What was I doing differently?’ They're like, ‘No, it's just unique.’ And I think that was the biggest thing, too, as to why the Astros front office liked me.”
While he feels the Astros liked his delivery, that wasn’t the case with other teams and their scouts.
“Whenever Jim Stevenson, the scout that came to watch me and the one that eventually got me signed, was coming to watch me throw one day, there were a couple scouts, I guess, who had left,” VanWey said. “They just didn't like the way I was throwing the baseball. They didn't think that it was unique or they thought maybe I'd be injury prone. But, last year I had 60 appearances, and 60 out of 60 times I felt 100 percent ready to pitch. So, that means, knock on wood, that it hasn't been a problem, but we kind of just took the ball and ran with it because that's kind of been my thing here. We haven't tried to change any mechanics or anything else.”
Pitching through adversity is nothing new for VanWey. He was a dominant high school pitcher and didn’t get a whole lot of action in recruiting. He even went as far as reaching out to colleges himself to see if they had any interest. He never got a call back. When he was ready to give up on baseball and focus on his education, MSSU baseball coach Bryce Darnell gauged VanWey’s interest in continuing his baseball career for the Lions.
“I almost didn't even play college baseball because all the schools that I was trying to go to, they never gave me a scholarship or even called me back,” VanWey said. “I was actually enrolling into classes at Missouri Southern when Darnell came up to me. They were a team that was really interested in me, and a lot of other schools hadn't really called me back.
“So, I kind of switched my mindset to, ‘Oh, well, maybe I'm not good enough to play college baseball. I'm just going to go to school and start my career from there.’ But, I was enrolling in classes and Darnell came up to me and my mom, and he asked me if I still wanted to play baseball? … So we kind of had a discussion about me going to Southern to play baseball. And I think in the back of my mind, I'd always wanted to keep playing, but those schools not calling me back kind of made me feel like I wasn't good enough to keep playing.
“I think once I came to the decision, I said to myself, ‘Alright, I'll give it a semester, a year of playing, and we'll see what happens from there.’ Coach Darnell, and that school, are kind of the reason I kept playing baseball. That and Coach Hartley from 417 Baseball.”
VanWey finished his senior season at Southern with a 7-3 record in 14 starts. He pitched 83 innings, struck out 123 and only walked 25 batters. He held opponents to a .199 BAA with a 3.47 ERA and 1.02 WHIP. Despite that success, just as life after his high school career ended, there wasn’t a whole lot of traction for VanWey until the Astros came calling with an opportunity to reach his dreams.
Now, when VanWey returns to Southwest Missouri, he has wisdom to share and stories to tell to his friends, former teammates and family. Because many kids in the area are in the same position he once was, giving them an opportunity to ask questions about what to expect is something he relishes. He knows all any young ball player needs is confidence to succeed, and he is happy to give them that very thing.
“It's not something out of reach,” VanWey said. “I try to explain to them that if you work hard enough, this is by far the most fun job you can have. You know, the travel, all the friends I get to see eight months out of the year, all the ballparks you get to play at—It's a dream come true and I couldn't be any more blessed than I am right now.”