By JOE McFARLAND

A baseball player’s mind can ask a million different questions when they are summoned to the manager’s office.

Is this just a standard check-in? Am I performing well enough? Do I need to make some changes? Am I getting promoted? Am I getting let go?

When Gavin Logan was called in for a chat with Hillsboro Hops skipper Mark Reed in mid-June, he wasn’t entirely sure what to think.

The Oyen native and Okotoks Dawgs alum was hitting .241 with a homer and 11 runs batted in through the first 27 games of the season, which was a marked improvement from his first two seasons in the Arizona Diamondbacks system.

His initial thought was that someone had gotten hurt in Double-A and that maybe he was going to be asked to fill in for a little while.

Instead, the Hops’ coaching staff gave the young backstop some news he wasn’t expecting at all.

“They told me that I was going to Reno in Triple-A and I just kind of laughed,” Logan told Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast. “I didn’t think they were serious – I thought they were just messing with me.”

The move set off a flurry of travel for the Alberta native, including three levels in the Diamondbacks’ system, which also gave him a renewed sense of optimism that he’s getting closer to his dream of the ultimate call-up.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING CURVE

Logan admits his first couple of seasons of professional baseball haven’t gone as smoothly as he initially envisioned.

Following a stellar collegiate career with Linn-Benton Community College and Oregon State University, the Dawgs grad was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the ninth round of the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft.

He finished that season hitting .255 with three doubles and eight RBI in 19 games split between the team’s Arizona Complex League team and the Hops.

Logan then played for both the Hops and Single-A Visalia Rawhide in 2023, compiling a .176 batting average with six homers and 23 RBI in 74 games, before spending all of 2024 with the Hops to compile an average of .182 with three homers and 15 RBI in 52 games.

It almost felt like he had been spinning his tires.

“I’m pretty sure just about everybody I’ve played with or everybody who has been through it and has been in the same spot … there are times where you’re like ‘I don’t know, if I don’t do well or if I’m not at a certain point, I don’t know if I want to keep playing,’” Logan said.

“That’s always going to jump into your head when things aren’t going well.”

He came back home for the offseason looking to make a few minor adjustments and tweaks, with the hope of understanding what had been going wrong.

REUNITING WITH OLD FRIENDS

After his usual time spent around the family farm outside Oyen to start the fall, Logan headed to Okotoks to start training and do some coaching with the Dawgs.

With several other alumni also back in town, the 5-foot-10, 212-pound signal-caller re-connected with two former teammates who were finding success in the minor leagues.

Matt Lloyd and Tristan Peters continue to make their way up the depth charts of the St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays, respectively, so Logan decided to tap into their brains.

He says Lloyd is great for working out and strength-related advice, while Peters is known as being one of the best hitters to ever come out of the Dawgs’ program.

“I think that really helped just having those guys around to always have an eye on each other,” Logan said. “I think that was a big part of it.”

Much like the regular season, he says the offseason can also be “up and down,” but he believed if he could find a way to be more free with his hands and more direct towards the ball it would have a massive impact on his approach at the plate.

‘DON’T COME BACK’

Logan’s work seemingly paid off to start the 2025 campaign, picking up hits in his first five games before going through a four-game hitless streak.

By the end of April, he was hitting .257, cooling off to .229 by the end of May.

June started with another stretch of three-straight games with a hit, while also picking up a few walks along the way, which showed some more patience at the plate.

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Then came the call to Reno.

“All they basically told me when I left High-A was that they didn’t know how long I was going to be there, so just go and catch a good game,” Logan said. “They said don’t worry about the offense, just do your thing defensively and hopefully don’t come back.”

It was an interesting juxtaposition of the minor leagues, as teams like players but almost don’t want to see them stick around for too long, especially if they are moving up the organizational ladder.

Logan made an impact with the Aces almost immediately, coming in as a defensive replacement on June 19, then he got his first start against the El Paso Chihuahuas on June 20.

In his first at-bat, he hit a single to right field off Matt Waldron, picking up his first RBI.

An inning later, Logan was hit by a pitch, then hit another single, walked and doubled to finish the day 3-for-3 with two RBI in a 17-4 Aces victory.

He ultimately picked up six hits in 12 at-bats during his abbreviated stay with the Aces before being sent back down to Hillsboro.

DAWG CATCHERS

So began the accumulation of Frequent Flyer miles for Logan, as he spent about two weeks with the Hops before getting another unexpected coaches meeting.

He earned himself an extended visit in Reno and went on a stretch of hitting a home run in three consecutive days.

Logan, whose brother Chase is also a Dawgs product, recalls one particular interview where he was asked about what was going right and he laughed it off, saying that it must be that the ball is just flying a little further for him.

In his mind, the 25-year-old simply wanted to keep an even-keel.

“Just trying to focus your mind on each day is all you can really do,” he said. “Just try and make an impact and be a value to the team or the organization, however you may do it.”

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Logan stayed in Reno until August 9 before being sent down, only this time to the Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate, the Amarillo Sod Poodles, where he was reunited with an old friend and mentor in Jordan Procyshen.

The pair had spent plenty of time together when Logan was in high school with Dawgs Academy, so when Procyshen was named bench coach for the Sod Poodles, the understudy was looking forward to potentially working together again.

“I was very excited … probably more excited than he was,” Logan said. “Just to have him around, especially in Spring Training, as we have a very good catching coordinator in our organization, and to also have Pro in the system with us is huge.”

He says Procyshen has a strong presence as a coach who is willing to put in the work to get the most out of catchers, especially on the defensive side of the baseball.

BUILDING ON MOMENTUM

Unfortunately, Logan’s first couple of weeks in Amarillo didn’t go as well as he’d hoped offensively.

He picked up hits in his first three games before going hitless for five. Then he found his power stroke again with another string of three-consecutive games with a homer.

Logan finished the season with the Sod Poodles, collecting a .138 batting average with four home runs and six RBI in 19 games.

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He did, however, get his first taste of professional postseason baseball with the Sod Poodles, going 1-for-3 with a two-run homer in an 8-7 loss to the Midland Rockhounds in the opening round of the Texas League playoffs.

It was a year that opened Logan’s mind to the future and he’s now more driven than ever to get into the minds of the Diamondbacks’ brass.

He harkens back to a conversation he had with a couple of pitchers in Triple-A about how quickly dreams can become a reality.

“You just never know, man,” Logan said.

“They said, ‘If you keep doing well for 10 or 15 more games a month, if someone gets hurt, you might go up there. If they trust you, they’re going to move you up there to cover that.’”

The Oyen product is back on the farm again for some quiet time before ramping up his baseball activities again, with an eye towards becoming more consistent at the plate while getting the ball out of his hand faster as he tries to throw out more would-be baserunners.

He wants to stay realistic, believing he can start the year in Amarillo before getting promoted to Reno again.

“Definitely, I want to be a big leaguer,” Logan said. “Everyone that’s doing it wants to be a big leaguer, so I have to find a way to get up there.”

2026 is shaping up to be another big year for Gavin Logan, where he’s hoping to get a couple more positive calls to the coaches’ office.