The Story of Adam Loewen

This is a long one…but a good one (if you’re a baseball fan, not just an O’s fan).  I definitely encourage a read.

Adam Loewen

Loyalty is a term that is thrown around a lot in sports, from a player’s loyalty to his hometown team or just a team that gave him a shot to hit it big, to a organization’s loyalty to a player that spent years of his career giving his all to win games for that team.   Both sides want something from the other side because they feel their loyalty over the years should be repaid.  However, sports is a business and more often than not loyalty is nothing more than a word that fans, organizations, and players can use to chastise the other side when they betray that trust.  Thus is the case of former Oriole pitcher, Adam Loewen.

Adam Loewen was the Orioles first round pick (#4 pick overall) in the 2002 amateur draft.  He was a big lefty that the Orioles saw as a future ace.  And just like many top picks in the baseball draft, Adam decided to hold out for a nice contract since in Major League Baseball’s flawed draft structure, the draftees have most of the leverage.  One year after the Orioles drafted Loewen, the O’s finally gave into his demands right before the 2003 draft because they didn’t want to lose his rights since he would have been eligible for the ’03 draft if no contract was signed.  The Orioles gave him the largest draftee signing bonus in team history (until Matt Wieters) and gave him a major league contract.  Giving a major league contract to a freshly drafted player is a huge risk, but one that the Orioles were backed into a corner to take, or else risk losing their 1st round draft choice.  A major league contract meant that Adam had to be in the majors by spring of 2007 (no matter his development) or else the Orioles would have to place him on waivers and thus most likely lose him to another team.  This is a contract that is usually given to more advanced players who maybe have spent a few years in college honing their skills.  Well, the Orioles quickly found out Adam wasn’t as advanced as they had hoped.  He struggled out of the gates and then went down with a arm injury that basically cost him a year.  By the time his 3rd year in the minors came around the O’s were forced to rush Adam through the system in hopes to getting him ready to be in the majors the next year because of the ridiculous contract Adam forced the O’s to sign.  He made his major league debut in 2006 and to the relief of the Orioles and their fans was actually able to hold his own his rookie year.  So it looked like the Orioles made the right call and had possibly found an anchor for their pitching staff for years to come.

Adam Loewen on draft day 2002

Then in 2007, a promising start was derailed when Adam went down with an arm injury; a stress fracture in his left forearm.  The injury costs Adam months on the DL and the rest of his season, but the Orioles were patient with him and brought him back slowly still considering him a possible future ace.  When Adam made his return, he only lasted a few starts in 2008 before succumbing to the injury yet again.  It was then that Adam saw a doctor who told him his pitching days were over; his arm couldn’t handle the forces put on it required to be a major league pitcher.  Adam was devastated.  Orioles fans were devastated.  This was just another example of rotten Orioles luck.  However, Adam announced that just because his pitching days were over, he wasn’t giving up on baseball.  He was going to try to pull a Rick Ankiel.  You see, many teams actually scouted Adam as a hitter coming into the 2002 draft, but the Orioles wanted him as a pitcher.  So it was obvious that there was some hitting talent there that Adam hoped could get him back to the majors.  The Orioles were 100% behind this.  The last few weeks of the 2008 season Adam spent time with the Orioles working with hitting coach Terry Crowley before being sent to the fall instructional league to be given even more guidance.  In the offseason, the Orioles were planning on using one of their highly coveted spots in the now defunct Hawaii Winter League so he could get some experience in games.  The plan was for Adam to start from square one in the minors in 2009 and work his way through the system just like any other player.  But this is where it gets tricky.

Since Adam signed that ridiculous major league contract, there was no way for the Orioles to just send him down to the minor leagues in hopes to train him as a hitter.  Without getting too technical, Adam was out of “options” meaning the only way the Orioles could ship him to the minor leagues was for him to pass through waivers without another team claiming him.  Now, in rare cases like this (such as Rick Ankiel), other teams usually have a gentlemen’s agreement to not place a claim on the player since it is a delicate situation.  (And because that team would then have to keep Adam on their major league roster and would be stuck in the same situation as the O’s.)  The other option would be for the Orioles to straight up release Adam from his contract and then re-sign him to a minor league contract that would allow him to come up through the O’s system just like any other player.  The only thing about this situation is that any team could now sign Adam to a contract of their own and Adam would be free to sign with any other team.  The only way, ONLY WAY, the Orioles would do this is if they were given assurance from Adam that he would re-sign with the O’s…a handshake agreement if you will.  Adam gave the Orioles his word.  There was no reason to think he would sign somewhere else, especially with the amount of money and resources the O’s had poured into Adam’s development through the years.  I repeat: Adam gave the Orioles his word.  The Orioles released him with plans to re-sign him right away.  Four days later, Adam Loewen signed a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Adam Loewen during batting practice as a Blue Jay

I should point out that Adam Loewen is Canadian.  In fact he is the highest drafted Canadian of all time.  So Adam eluded to the chance of him having the opportunity to play for his “hometown” team when explaining his decision.  Now, I should also point out that Adam is from Surrey, British Columbia, which almost 3000 MILES from Toronto.  The Seattle Mariners are much more of a hometown team than the Toronto Blue Jays so that’s a bit of a cop out, but I digress.  Yes, it is still his home country team that he grew up watching, so you can’t blame him for wanting to play for his favorite team.  That does show a certain degree of loyalty.  However, going back on your word to a team that gave into your ridiculous contract demands and was patient with your struggles in the minors before you finally showed some promise in the majors only to once again disappoint with injuries is not loyalty.  Going back on your word to a team that was 100% behind you when you announced you were going to try to make it as a position player because doctors told you your pitching days were over is not loyalty.  Going back on your word to a team that worked with you in your initial stages of once again learning how to hit and using one of their offseason development programs on you is not loyalty.  The Orioles were loyal to Adam Loewen through thick and thin.  They put up with everything he put them through since that draft day back in 2002 and were willing to work with him when his pitching career ended hoping he could still contribute down the road as a position player.  And how did he repay them?  By turning his back on them the first opportunity he got.  The Blue Jays also share some of the blame for this.  They saw an opportunity to swoop in and steal a player from a competing organization.  There was no gentlemen’s agreement as far as the Blue Jays were concerned.  They came out of this looking like an organization that shows very little class.  When all this went down, Orioles GM Andy MacPhail only said:

“I was a little surprised.  I thought we were pretty much there in a deal, but apparently not…The appeal was playing for his native Canada and we are a proud part of the United States, and we make no apologies for that…We wish him well.” (The Washington Post)

And that was that.  It was done as far as MacPhail was concerned.  The Orioles were the only side of this story that came out showing any sort of class.

Now, I don’t post this as a way to wish any sort of ill will towards Adam Loewen.  He made a decision that he felt was best for him and you can’t fault him for that.  Far be it for me to wish harm on any person who is trying to live out their dream, especially when it involves playing baseball for a living, which as far as I’m concerned is the best job in the world.  I just wanted to tell this story because when the day comes that Adam Loewen does make it back to the majors as an outfielder (which is very very unlikely by the way), this is not the side of the story you are going to hear.  You’ll hear about a player who didn’t give up on his dreams and slowly worked his way back up to rejoin the major leagues.  It is a great comeback story, as we have all seen with Rick Ankiel.  However, the other side of the story is one of betrayal and lack of loyalty to an organization that was willing to go above and beyond what was required of them to give a player a chance in the big leagues.  If Adam does indeed make his way back to the majors he will have my applause, but he will never, ever have my respect.