TORONTO — Adam Loewen refuses to look too far into the future, but ask him to reflect back on the past 12 months and he can’t wipe the smile off his face.
And who can blame him.
A year ago, the 27-year-old was still considered a long shot to return to the majors as an outfielder with the Toronto Blue Jays, three years after being converted to the position after stress fracture in his left shoulder injury ended a once-promising pitching career with the Baltimore Orioles.
But on Saturday as he prepared to attend Baseball Canada’s annual awards dinner, Loewen was able to look back on a season in which he not only completed one of the most remarkable comebacks in recent baseball memory, but one in which he enjoyed some special moments along the way.
“I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish and more,” he said, sporting a thick off-season beard and shaking his head in somewhat disbelief. “I really didn’t expect anything going into the season.”
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Loewen began 2011 with the Blue Jays’ triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas 51s. During the previous year at New Hampshire with the double-A Fisher Cats, Loewen posted a line of .246/.351/.412/.763 with 13 home runs and 142 strikeouts.
Considerable improvement in 2011 was needed if he was going to return the majors before the year was out.
But after posting a line of .306/.377/.508/.884 with 18 home runs for Las Vegas in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, on Sept. 6 the Blue Jays decided Loewen had done enough and he got the call he felt ready to receive, even if he was never sure it would come.
“I know enough to know that you never know when you’re going to get called up and no matter how well you’re doing,” he said when asked if he ever felt confident he would get the call. “I’ve seen players that weren’t doing so well get called up because they had a need and vice versa. So I tried to not pay any attention to that and just enjoy the season.”
Once in Toronto, the Blue Jays wasted little time seeing what the 6-6, left-handed hitter could do against big league pitching, inserting Loewen into the starting lineup Sept. 7 in right field against the Boston Red Sox. The former fourth-overall pick (2002) in the MLB draft responded with his first major league hit, a single off of Boston’s Daniel Bard in an 11-10 Toronto win.
Four days later he hit his first home run 0 — a game-tying solo shot to centre in the bottom of the seventh against — who else — his former Baltimore employers.
And on Sept. 14 in Boston, Loewen played his own small part in contributing to the infamous Red Sox collapse by lacing a game-winning, two-run single to centre off Bard in a 5-4 Toronto win.
“It was a pretty long at-bat and he was throwing really hard,” Loewen easily. “Luckily, I was used to that because I was seeing a lot of good arms in triple-A around 96, 97, 98 (m.p.h.). I fouled a tough slider off, then laid off a tough, back-door slider to get to 2-2 and then I was just thinking he’s going to challenge me with the fastball.”
“Luckily I hit it pretty hard up the middle.”
It was an impressive at-bat for a rookie hitter, given the stage, the opponent on the mound, and what was at stake for Boston.
Sometimes asking an athlete to choose a favourite feat is akin to asking a parent to name their favourite off-spring, but for Loewen the choice was easy.
“The home run against Baltimore,” he said. “It was at home and it tied the game at 5-5. I remember the fans went nuts. I’ll never forget that.”
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Despite his early September heroics however, Loewen’s overall nbody of work for the month indicates his future as a big league hitter remains very much in doubt.
In 37 plate appearances with Toronto, Loewen posted a line of .188/.297/.313/.610.
Over the final two weeks of the season (21 plate appearances) the numbers slid even further: .056/.190/.111/.302.
The combination of his performance and the team’s organizational depth in the outfield made the Blue Jays’ decision to grant Loewen his release on Nov. 4 likely an easy one.
On Nov. 27 he signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets. Loewen’s agent had received a call from Mets assistant GM J.P. Ricciardi—the man who was sitting in the Blue Jays’ GM’s chair when Toronto signed Loewen back in 2009.
“He knows me a little bit, what I went through and that makes a big difference to me,” said Loewen. “He knows I still have a high ceiling; I’ve only been hitting for three years after taking six years off so I think I can still get a lot better.”
The Mets starting outfield for 2012 is shaping up with Jason Bay, Andres Torres and Lucas Duda manning the starting sports and right-handed hitter Scott Hairston coming off the bench. The fifth and final outfield spot looks to be up for grabs between Loewen and fellow lefty Mike Baxter.
But win or lose, Loewen won’t obsess about his baseball future, perhaps because from here on out, he knows he’ll be playing with house money.
“I don’t like to make specific goals,” he said when asked what he hopes to accomplish in 2012. “I just want to put myself into the best position possible heading into spring training. I just try to enjoy the time I have and I think I do that because I know it’s not forever. I had a career-ending injury before so I really try to focus on the present more than the future.”
But after starting and pitching 3.2 scoreless innings for Team Canada in its memorable 8-6 win over the U.S. in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, and then being forced to watch the 2009 event on TV due to his shoulder trouble, Loewen did concede that the 2013 event is one thing he’s already looking ahead to.
“I’ve thought about it a lot,” he admitted. “I think about playing in front of a packed Rogers Centre against the U.S. or some other big name team and bringing wins home for Canada.
“It’s what we all think about it. We just have to get past that first round.”
