South Side Sox Top Prospect No. 83: Logan Sowers

Another 2018 draft pick makes the list — and this one packs an impressive bat

By Darren Black Mar 7, 2019, 9:49pm CST

**Sow far, Sow good:** The big outfielder had a great first stint in pro ball, though he was playing against younger competition.

Logan Sowers
6´5´´
230 pounds
Bats: Right
Age: 23
SSS rank among all right fielders in the system: 5

This is from our coverage from the 2018 draft on Logan Sowers:

“According to MLB Draft Countdown in January, Sowers’ top tools are arm and power (55) while his hitting, fielding and speed all grade 40. However, his future grades rank 60 for power, 55 for arm, 45 for hitting and fielding and 40 for speed.”

Much of that scouting report came to fruition in 2018, in the White Sox system.

The power, though not off the charts for the rookie level, was impressive. He had a .188 ISO with nine home runs. He added an additional 17 extra-base hits, but the power does seem to be unsustainable right now. In the batted ball data from FanGraphs, Sowers’ hit 50.7% of his batted balls on the ground. That led to a pretty high HR/FB rate of 19.1% and even more surprising, he had a 39.2% pull rate. Now, that is really low for a suspected power hitter, but it is not an uncommon thing. Those four stats are not all that dissimilar from what Tommy Pham produced last season, and he had about the same offensive production Sowers did in rookie ball.

Sowers ended his first 64 games with a 123 wRC+ to go along with a slash line at .296/.385/.483. There is no swing and miss data in the minors, but he had a 11.6% BB-rate, which is very good. But he also had a K-rate at 29.8%, which is terrible. Oddly enough though, Sowers’ plate discipline was close to Justin Upton’s in 2018.

The defense is hard to tell, especially with outfielders in rookie ball who are not your typical Top 30 guys. Sowers did play all three outfield spots, but seems more suited to right as of now. He had a total of seven assists, but without context, it is impossible to know if the runner ran into some of those outs or not. Since Sowers did get six games in center and was 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts, he does seem more athletic than his draft profile let on.

Take a look!

Here is Sowers’ 41% opposite field and 50% ground ball rates at work in school: