Elliott: Logan Allen, Canada's WBC mystery man
Former Cleveland Guardians LHP Logan Allen will pitch for Canada. He is eligible because his father is from Lachine, Que.
December 19, 2025
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
There are roughly 140 free agents looking for a place to play, a contract to keep them warm as well as a uniform to wear next season.
Free agent Logan Allen -- one of two pitchers by the same name -- had an unusual request.
“I told teams I won’t sign with anyone unless they allow me to pitch for Canada in the World Baseball Classic,” said Allen from Scottsdale, Ariz. “I’m not going back to Korea. We’re looking at a couple options. I don’t think pitching in the WBC will hurt me. If anything teams that are interested would like to see me on the bigger stage compared to a spring training game.
”I would stay unsigned until after the WBC.”
Now, if the name Allen is not known in households from New Westminster or Etobicoke, it is with good reason. It will be his debut wearing red and white. You see his father Norman, grew up in Lachine, Que. playing hockey before moving to University of Florida, home of the Gators.
Credit Rowan Wick (North Vancouver, BC) with the finder’s fee for discovering Allen’s background. They roomed together at double-A San Antonio in 2018.
“Rowan kept saying ‘you should play for Canada, why haven’t you sent your stuff in yet?’” Allen said. “Then we talked a lot this season. Rowan is hurt now, but he was in Japan and I was in Korea. There are not too many people in the same time zone I could talk with.”
Allen said he found out he would be joining Canada right around Thanksgiving after he reached out to Baseball Canada and sent off all his paperwork in July or August. Canada will be in the pool based in Puerto Rico -- which means it won’t face Team USA -- trying to gain one of two spots against Cuba. Panama, Colombia and Puerto Rico.
“I never knew the requirements or eligibility, I thought you had to have lived there and grown up there like Josh Naylor,” said Allen.
WBC rules allow for players to be eligible for the country of their parents’ birthplace.
“I played with Josh in San Diego, what an outstanding individual, spent a lot of time with Cal Quantrill and got to know Bo Naylor in 2020 during the COVID season.”
Both Naylors and Quantrill have committed to the March WBC. Allen and Bo Naylor were together at Cleveland’s alternative site for minor leaguers in Lake City, Ohio, outside of Cleveland in 2020, “except for 30 days,” when he was with the major-league club.
In 2025, Allen pitched for the NC Dinos in Korea when the lefty was 7-12 with a 4.53 ERA in 31 starts, striking out 149 in 173 innings. He has pitched in 45 games in the majors with the Padres (eight in 2019), Cleveland (22, 2020-2022), Baltimore Orioles (three, 2022) and Arizona Diamondbacks (12, 2024).
Every WBC, a player -- do we call them a generational player, or a player who is eligible going back one generation? - we have not heard of pops up on the Canadian roster. Let’s see there was SS Cale Iorg (Toronto, Ont.), SS Chris Barnwell, whose roots go back to Shelburne, N.S. and LHP Kevin Chapman, whose father is from Ontario.
Allen’s father, Norman, moved to Florida after hockey, settled in West Palm Beach and gained his architectural degree. Allen attended IMG Academy in Bradenton and was selected in the eighth round of the 2018 draft by the Boston Red Sox, his father’s favourite team.
“He was so happy when I was drafted by Boston and now it is so cool to go full circle -- and pitch for Canada,” said Allen. “The whole family, which grew up a hockey family, knew about this and is really into it.”
Allen says he knows it will be an “outstanding” experience. Of his potential WBC teammates, he knows Michael Soroka (Calgary, Alta.). He knows that Curtis Taylor (Coquitlam, BC) signed in Korea and he has faced Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) and Abraham Toro (Longueuil, Que.) He has also faced Freddie Freeman, who is uncertain about playing for Canada due to an injury. Freeman is 0-for-2.
“I just know it’s a great group,” Allen said.
The other Logan Allen, also a lefty, was 8-11 with a 4.25 ERA in 29 starts with the Guardians.
“I was in Cleveland for four years ... he went to high school near me (Altamonte Springs, Fla.) when we drafted him,” said the Allen with a Canadian father. “We have the same names and play the same position. He’s a little shorter and doesn’t have facial hair. He gets my baseball cards, I get his.
“I heard he might be eligible to pitch for Panama.”
On March 8 at Hiram Bithorn Stadium when Canada hosts Panama there could be an Allen vs. Allen match up.