By Rob Rains
JUPITER, Fla. – All of the players in the Cardinals’ clubhouse have a story to tell about the journey that led them to the team’s spring training camp.
None of those stories, however, can compare to what Logan Sawyer went through to get to this place as a 31-year-old rookie.
“It’s been a wild ride for sure,” Sawyer said.
There were so many twists and turns, so many low points, that Sawyer had to overcome on his path that he does sometimes wonder how – and why – he kept going.
Drafted by the Rockies in the 29th round out of Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee in 2014, a round that Sawyer points out doesn’t exist any more, Sawyer didn’t get out of A ball before he was released at the end of 2016.
That was just the start of the hurdles that slowed him down but didn’t stop Sawyer’s pursuit of a dream. Tommy John surgery couldn’t do it. Having to miss two complete seasons didn’t do it. Neither did Covid. Neither did giving up seven runs and not being able to get out of an inning in Independent ball, forcing him to finish the inning in right field.
Getting cut from another independent league team out of spring training didn’t end his dream either. Sawyer battled through all of it, working a variety of off-season jobs so he could keep fueling his obsession with baseball.
Sitting at a table under the Florida sunshine, just outside the clubhouse where he has a jersey, number 94, hanging in a locker with his name on the back. Sawyer believes all of the time, effort and dedication was worth it.
In a conversation with his father, Sammy, before he left home in Knoxville, Tenn,, earlier this month to report to the Cardinals’ camp, Sawyer thought about his journey.
“My dad goes, ‘Buddy, I don’t know what’s going to happen this year, but I want you to know you’ve already made it,’” Sawyer said. “He started laughing, then he said, ‘You should not be there.’
“I said, ‘Trust me, I know.’ I do have that appreciation that I’ve overcome a lot.”
Cut from independent league team
The list of minor-league teams which Sawyer has pitched for over the last decade is a long one. The Railspliters, the Woodchucks, the Dust Devils, the Tourists, the Nuts, the Barnstormers, the Ace and the Otters among them, before his 2023 season spent mostly with the Double A Springfield Cardinals.
Sawyer’s wife Natalie is reminded of those years when he will pull out a T shirt that he kept from one of those teams. “Here’s another one,” he tells her.
It was what happened with a team that didn’t make that list, however, which Sawyer points to when asked about the lowest point of his journey.
That came in the spring of 2020, when the independent American Association decided to play even though Covid canceled the affiliated minor league seasons. Sawyer was invited to the spring camp of the Chicago Dogs, thought he pitched well, but then was cut from the team.
In retrospect, Sawyer believes it “was a blessing in disguise.”
“I had an eight-hour drive back to Knoxville and it helped me with reflection,” Sawyer said. “I said the same prayer I pray every day now. I was talking to God and I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m putting in all this effort and sacrificing so much for this game and I love it. I love the process, but it’s just not working out right now.’
“It took getting cut and going home to have that reflection and perspective. It was kind of not just a religious reset but just a life reset to get some guidance.”
After he got back to Knoxville, Sawyer’s reflection continued.
“It hit me pretty hard,” he said. “I was sitting there with not much to do. Just sitting with it. People don’t do that any more. Just sit with it, sit with your feelings. Sit with where you are and figure out where you need to go from there.
“To me it was just an obvious answer that you have to find your identity again. My identity was no longer in Christ, it was now baseball. I thought, ‘How are you living making baseball your idol? You’re pretty miserable it looks like.’ Back when I had Christ as our idol it was pretty good.
“Once I turned that back around it kind of eliminated a lot of stress. To me, getting my faith right right helped me. It felt like God gave me an ability to play baseball and He didn’t necessarily open the doors I wanted. I prayed for His timing versus my own.”
Sawyer’s reflection included thinking about why he had to overcome so much to continue playing baseball, and why he never wanted to quit.
“I’ve been a Christian since I was a little boy but I have 1000 percent had my faults,” he said. “I used to drink quite a bit and I haven’t touched the stuff in years. … Anytime we have those vices and get an obstruction in our path, we run to those vices.”
Sawyer came to the conclusion that the reason he hadn’t found the success he wanted in baseball was because it wasn’t God’s plan for him at the time.
“To be quite honest, if I would have been in the major leagues in my 20s it probably wouldn’t have ended up well,” he said. “I probably wouldn’t have been a good example to others. I probably would have been a bad influence to others. I probably wouldn’t have been living the right way. I could have lost my way.
“But now I’m married. I’ve got structure and responsibility and a better true sense of purpose.”
Sawyer found himself pitching for two independent league teams in 2021, in Lancaster, Pa., and Evansville, Ind., before going back to Evansville in 2022.
It was was about halfway through the Frontier League’s 2022 season when Sawyer became aware that he had not allowed a run. He ended the year with only one unearned run allowed while he recorded 22 saves with just three walks and 39 strikeouts in 29 innings.
Sawyer thought his performance would get noticed by affiliated teams. He went home and waited for his phone to ring. He got calls from foreign teams, and more independent teams, but they weren’t the calls he wanted.
He went back to work for a heating and cooling company, one of his many off-season jobs over the years.
“I was feeling sorry for myself; just twiddling my thumbs,” Sawyer said. “I was very sensitive and vulnerable to that.”
That’s when Sawyer’s wife, Natalie, offered a suggestion. She remembered hearing about someone on Twitter, as it was known at the time, posting videos of pitchers who were looking for a job. Sawyer created an account, put together a video, and posted it, hoping it would get some attention.
“She said, ‘I just have a feeling you should try this,” Sawyer said.
After posting the video, Sawyer went to work and had been on a roof for a couple of hours, with his cell phone locked in his truck, when he received a notice on his watch that his phone’s battery was dying.
“It was fully charged, there was no reason it should be dying,” Sawyer said.
When he got his phone out of the truck, he saw what had happened. He had failed to turn off his notifications, and Rob Friedman, who ran the pitching ninja account, had retweeted Sawyer’s post. Teams saw it and started calling.
“I was blown away,” Sawyer said. “Doors opened for me. Teams were emailing and I was getting voice mails. I didn’t want to make a bad decision.”
After John Vuch of the Cardinals front office called and offered a contract for 2023, Sawyer’a future was looking brighter than it had in years. He was on another roof at the time, and dropped his phone, which fell to the ground three stories below – and didn’t break.
Natalie was working the night shift as a nurse at the time and was home sleeping. Sawyer woke her up with the news.
“It was crazy, it was so fun,” she said.
Added Sawyer, “She is 100 percent the reason I am here.”
Natalie had followed Sawyer’s path even before they began dating and got married. Her mother and Sawyer’s mother were close friends and she kept up with his ups and downs through Facebook.
“He is such a strong person,” Natalie said. “Baseball is his life. He works so hard and I want to be supportive. Since we started dating he always told me he loved baseball and was going to keep pushing. I always told him you can keep playing until you can’t throw a ball anymore. I will always support you.
“His story is so fun, a different experience than other guys who get drafted and work their way up. His story is insane. It’s crazy how many hoops he has had to jump through to get here. I’m so proud of him.”
A “sick” obsession with baseball
After pitching for Springfield for most of 2023, and spending a little time in Memphis, Sawyer re-signed with the Cardinals for this season and was told he would be invited to the major-league camp as a non-roster pitcher.
He had been around major-leaguers before. He played with Josh Fuentes, Nolan Arenado’s cousin, in the Rockies system. He saw several Cardinals in Springfield last summer when they went there on rehab assignments.
Walking into the major-league clubhouse, however, after first passing all of the luxury cars and trucks in the team parking lot, was a different experience for Sawyer. He was thankful, and grateful.
“I definitely reflect back on where I came from,” Sawyer said. “I try every day to take a moment at breakfast, lunch and dinner and kind of meditate and use that time for prayer and talk to God a little bit even if it’s only for 30 seconds.
“Every day is a gift to me. I believe God has given me the ability to do this so as long as I feel I can still compete at a very high level I’m going to keep doing it. The day I stop having fun and stop enjoying the process of baseball is probably the day I will step away.”
That didn’t happen in 2016, after being released by the Rockies, when, while working as an unpaid intern at Cressey’s baseball training facility in Jupiter with a catering job on the side, he was throwing for scouts and heard his elbow pop. He had torn a ligament in his elbow and needed Tommy John surgery. Because he was not on a team, the medical costs had to be paid by his family.
He didn’t stop in either of the next two years when he was out of baseball, working as a substitute high school teacher, a job Sawyer referred to as a “glorified babysitter.”
“I have two wonderful parents who are absolutely the best Christian role models I could ask for,” Sawyer said. “I didn’t have any money but I still had an obsession with baseball. They told me as long as you have this drive and obsession, and you’re doing everything you possibly can to get back you can stay at home as long as you want. I took them up on that until I got married (in 2022).”
Sawyer didn’t stop after that game for Lancaster, Pa., in 2019, when he found himself playing right field after allowing the seven runs in less than an inning.
“That was a pretty low point to be honest with you,” Sawyer said.
That offered another point of self-reflection for Sawyer.
“Am I still playing because I need to have this adversity to overcome so I can handle success later on?” Sawyer asked himself, “or is this a sign that I need to stop? To me, a sign to stop is not result-oriented until it gets really, really bad. I think it’s more your drive.
“Am I stressing coming to the field every day? The day that happens I promise you I will retire. When I start dreading the pickoffs, the little fundamental things, I will retire. I love going out there and doing that.
“God gives me the fire and motivation to keep going with this sick obsession with baseball. When that dwindles away I guess it’s time to hang them up.”
When Sawyer gets into a game for the Cardinals this spring, that will be another moment when he will realize that everything he has gone through was not in vain. It’s not his ultimate goal, but it is still another step toward getting there.
“People back home say, ‘You want that cup of coffee don’t you,’” Sawyer said. “I’m like, ‘No, I want the coffee maker. I want to continue to get the coffee.
“When I look back at those moments that were the low points, I kind of smile. ‘That happened to you. You have that in your back pocket.’ When bad things come we don’t need to freak out or panic.
“A lot of times you take a step outside the door and you look around and life just goes on. To me looking back at those moments – I’ve already overcome that – now I can just keep going.”
Arenado had a chance a few days ago to catch up with Sawyer and learn about what the last decade has been like for him.
“He kind of shared it with me,” Arenado said about Sawyer’s story. “I was kind of blown away by it. It’s cool he’s back here and has a chance to show himself and hopefully he will perform and do what he wants to do.
“This game will kind of tear you down. To want to keep pushing, I think it (the game) rewards you when you do those things. Not everybody wants to continue to fight in this game. It’s a credit to him.”
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
Photos courtesy of Sawyer family and Springfield Cardinals
