T-Rat Talk: Logan Henderson

Logan Henderson's stay with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers was brief but memorable. Our Kyle Lobner was able to catch the Milwaukee Brewers pitching prospect between starts with the Rattlers to discuss his prospect status, his way back from injury in the Spring Breakout Game, and his goals.

The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers have spent most of the first half of the Midwest League season in first place in the West Division, and they’ve largely done that while missing a pitcher who was expected to be one of their top prospects.

Before the season Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs, Keith Law of The Athletic, MLB Pipeline and Baseball Prospectus all had Timber Rattlers pitcher and 2021 fourth round pick Logan Henderson ranked between 14th and 18th in the Brewers organization, making him the fourth or fifth-ranked pitcher on each list. Henderson was coming off a breakout season with Carolina in 2023, where he made 18 starts and posted a 2.75 earned run average across 78 2/3 innings, striking out 106 of the 301 batters he faced.

“I appreciate it, it’s an honor to have my name on something like that but I don’t really look into it like that,” Henderson said of the prospect accolades. “My job is to go out there and give our team a chance to win every night, and I feel like the more you look into that the more you let it get to you… I just try not to pay attention to it.”

Is this the new look Logan Henderson?

93-96 T-97 with one of the best CHs in the minors

And is that a slide piece located on the outside corner at 82?

I've sang the praises of Henderson all off-season and he's finally healthy and ready to take a step forward📈 pic.twitter.com/HfhSiKfwqw

— Prospect Tilt (@Prospect_Tilt) May 25, 2024

This spring the Brewers invited Henderson to early camp and wasted no time putting him on big stages: He pitched in relief in the MLB team’s third Cactus League game of the year, working the seventh inning of a game against the Reds in Maryvale. Henderson captured even more attention from prospect evaluators in that game when his fastball, which had been in the low 90’s the season before, topped out at 97 in a short outing.

“It was a really cool experience, getting into my first game,” Henderson said. “Going into spring training I was hoping to get into a game and they gave me an opportunity, and it was a really cool experience. Being in the bullpen with some of the big league guys and building relationships with them, it was really cool, so it was a neat experience.”

When the Brewers renovated American Family Fields of Phoenix several years ago they restructured the facility so major and minor league players share a fair number of spaces. As such, this spring Henderson had an opportunity to get to know multiple relievers who have gone on to play a big role with the Brewers this season.

“Jared Koenig was really cool with me. Bryan Hudson, I had a locker next to him, and he got there for early camp so I got to know him pretty well, but everybody pretty much welcomed me with open arms, so it was a good experience,” Henderson said.

That Cactus League game wasn’t the only time the Brewers showcased Henderson this spring, however: He was also one of ten pitchers on their roster for their inaugural Spring Breakout prospect showcase game against the Royals. He was the second pitcher out of the bullpen for the Brewers in that game, but his outing ended after just one batter when he suffered a strained oblique muscle.

“It was an honor to be selected for that game, and it was unfortunate what happened in the game but that’s part of baseball, man. So like I said, I was honored to be selected for that and it was a cool experience nonetheless,” Henderson said.

So, while most of his teammates were packing their bags and joining their new teams to start the season, Henderson had to remain behind in Arizona. He had already missed most of the 2022 season after elbow surgery and he was disappointed to miss more time, but staying in the desert to rehab allowed him to focus on making adjustments to avoid similar injury in the future.

“Nick Jensen (the Brewers’ Director of Player Health) had my program back in Arizona, so I was in good hands. The first couple of weeks were just letting it recover, and then doing a lot of core strength, opening my hips and trying to set a better foundation so something like that doesn’t happen again,” Henderson said.

Logan Henderson on rehab in the ACL tonight. Absolutely dominate! 2inn, no hits and 5 strikeouts. He painted corners and had them fooled with his pitch mix. 3 of the strikeouts on Ryan Burrowes, George Wolkow and Abraham Nunez. 🔥 @BrewersPD#ProspectOne pic.twitter.com/JZ6sXD0DIs

— The Welsh (@IsItTheWelsh) May 10, 2024

By the time Henderson returned to the mound in May he certainly looked like a pitcher that was back at full strength. He struck out ten of the first 16 batters he faced for the Arizona Complex League Brewers across two outings before joining Wisconsin for a debut in South Bend on May 24. His uptick in velocity played increasingly well off of an outstanding changeup that has been his calling card as a professional, and MLB Pipeline notes that the combination has played well against both left and right-handed opposing batters.

“The star of the show here is easily Henderson’s changeup, hovering right around 80 mph. It looks a lot like the fastball out of his hand and tumbles late right near the plate, dropping below batters’ flails,” MLB Pipeline says. “Henderson’s heater doesn’t have standout velocity, but there’s enough ride up in the zone to help him establish a reputation as a north-south pitcher. That fastball-changeup combo has kept Henderson virtually split-resistant in the early stages of his career.”

In 2023 Henderson actually faced more opposing lefties than righties, an unusual situation borne of both opposing managers stacking lineups against him with opposite-handed batters and frequent matchups against the same teams in the Carolina League’s North Division. This wasn’t an issue, however, as Henderson limited those lefties to a .201 batting average with a .599 on-base plus slugging.

In an era of pitch labs, high speed video and technology-heavy training facilities, one might expect that Henderson’s changeup would be the end result of months of fine tuning under heavy scrutiny. The truth, however, is a little more low-fi than that.

“I’ve always had a decent changeup but when COVID hit in 2020 and I’d go and throw on high school fields and back fields, I was kind of just toying around with it and finally I found a grip that really let the ball move,” Henderson said. “I kind of just grip it and rip it and it comes natural to me. I have a hard time throwing a slider or a curveball, so the changeup is definitely the go-to.”

Finding that changeup grip paid near-immediate dividends for Henderson, who led all junior college pitchers with 169 strikeouts in 2021 and won the Junior College World Series MVP with McClennan Community College. He said his experience pitching high profile outings in college is something he thinks will give him an edge going forward.

“I feel like I can pitch in the big game,” Henderson said. “I kind of treat every game the same, but throwing in front of 11,000 people that game kind of got my feet wet with throwing in front of a crowd. I think Wisconsin’s going to have the biggest crowds I’ve thrown in front of consistently, but I’m ready for it. It’s going to be a new challenge but I’m excited.”

Logan Henderson of @McLennanSports earns the 2021 #NJCAABaseball DI Pitcher of the Year, presented by the Marines 🏅

The freshman's dominant season on the mound helped lead the Highlanders to their first World Series title since 1983.

📰| https://t.co/9YcZ1NhJoK pic.twitter.com/4ePRqu18Pg

— NJCAA Baseball (@NJCAABaseball) June 28, 2021

Henderson made his Timber Rattlers debut on the road but pitched his first game at home for Wisconsin on Friday night, and it lived up to the hype: He worked four scoreless innings on just 52 pitches and struck out seven batters without walking any. Five of the last seven batters to face Henderson were unable to put the ball in play, including top-rated Padres prospect Ethan Salas. One of the many people impressed by the outing was Timber Rattlers manager Victor Estevez, who also managed Henderson last year with Carolina.

“He was pretty good, like always,” Estevez told the Timber Rattlers Review postgame podcast on Friday. “That guy has been outstanding for me since last year. It is good for him to be back healthy again. He’s elite. His fastball plays really well up in the zone and his changeup is also elite right now. So that’s what I’m getting all the time from Logan.”

During that conversation, however, Estevez also had some breaking news. After the game Henderson had been promoted to AA Biloxi, and his next outing is expected to come with the Shuckers this week. Henderson is the fourth Timber Rattlers pitcher to go up a level this season, joining Brett Wichrowski, Will Childers and Craig Yoho.

Whether in Biloxi or Wisconsin, however, Henderson’s goals remain the same: Stay healthy, stay on the field and keep working on getting ahead of opposing hitters.

“Attack the zone. Attack the zone and put guys away early. Sometimes I get deep into counts and my pitch count will get high in the second or third inning, but as long as I can get those quick outs and put guys away early, I’ll have a lot of success,” Henderson said.

Logan Henderson is on his way to Double-A 💪

In his second outing in High-A, Henderson tossed 4 shutout innings: 3H / 0R / 0BB / 7K#ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/9kv1c2XwCx

— Brewers Player Development (@BrewersPD) June 3, 2024