Former Glacier Range Riders Pitcher Becomes First From Team to Appear in MLB Game
The second batter Logan VanWey faced in his MLB debut was 11-time All-Star outfielder and three-time American League MVP Mike Trout
By Mike Kordenbrock
The Glacier Range Riders are celebrating a new milestone for their young baseball organization after a former player pitched in a Major League Baseball game last week for the first time in Range Riders history.
Logan VanWey, who started for the Range Riders in their first ever Pioneer League game in 2022, took the mound April 11 at Daikin Park for the Houston Astros during a homestand against the Los Angeles Angels. According to a press release from the Glacier Range Riders, he is just the second Pioneer Baseball League player to make an MLB appearance since the restructuring of the Pioneer League to an MLB Partner League in 2020.
VanWey, who the Houston Chronicle reported had been called up from Triple A earlier that week for a series against the Mariners, entered the game with the Astros up 7-2. His parents, girlfriend and best friend from high school were all in attendance, per the Chronicle.
He faced seven batters across two innings, retiring six of them and giving up no hits and no runs on 24 pitches. The second batter VanWey faced in his MLB debut was 11-time All-Star outfielder and three-time American League MVP Mike Trout. Swinging at a sinker low and away, Trout grounded out to third on a 1-1 count.
VanWey notched one strikeout in his debut, dispatching with Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe on four pitches. Strike three for O’Hoppe came in the form of a 94 mph four-seam fastball high and inside that froze him for a strikeout looking.
The one blemish on VanWey’s night came with two outs in the top of the 6th when he hit outfielder Jorge Soler. The Astros ended up winning the game 14-3.
A 26-year-old righty from Joplin, Missouri, VanWey came to the Range Riders after finishing his college career at Division II Missouri Southern State University, where he played for five years and finished with a 3.58 ERA across 76 appearances.
VanWey began playing in the Pioneer League after he went undrafted. Over the nine appearances he made in 2022 for the Range Riders, VanWey logged 39.1 innings, and went 2-2 with 41 strikeouts and a 6.64 ERA. In a press release announcing VanWey’s MLB debut, Range Riders Director of Communications Scot Gladstone wrote that the high ERA “was not indicative of his success for Glacier, with that number getting ballooned thanks to one bad start.”
VanWey’s season in 2022 finished in the Florida Complex League, followed by stints in Asheville, North Carolina, Corpus Christi, Texas, and then Sugar Land, Texas, where he played the entirety of 2024 with the Houston Astros Triple A affiliate Sugar Land Space Cowboys. VanWey joined the Astros in spring training this year, and ended with a 1.32 ERA over 13 innings.
Per the Chronicle’s reporting, VanWey spent all of last season on the brink of breaking through from Triple A, and Astros Manager Joe Espada said he was “that close last year.” Of VanWey’s debut, Espada went on to tell the Chronicle that it was “a really good first impression.”