2025 All-Star Logan Shepherd returns in 2026 with his sights set on besting the HarbourCats franchise home run record and bringing a WCL title to Victoria.

By Norm LeBus

The HarbourCats’ designated hitter says he’s breaking the team home record this season. But Logan Shepherd is the first to admit he’s not really trying to.

Batting for long balls is a fool’s errand, he says.

“You’re going to start popping the ball up in the infield or hitting really lazy fly balls,” the 21-year-old Olympia, Washington native says. “Home runs for me are never necessarily on purpose, they’re always sort of an accidental thing.”

Oops – Shepherd went yard in his very first at bat of the ‘Cats home opener last year.

The count was 2-1, he recalls, and he was sitting on a fastball, middle, middle away. That’s the pitch Shepherd hits best, and what he focuses on at the plate.

“Because it’s a lot easier to adjust from a fastball to an off-speed pitch than the other way,” he says. “If you’re not on time ready to hit a fastball, you’re going to foul it off or you’re going to swing and miss. There’s no in between.”

Shepherd made big strides with his bat two years ago. During his first year at Tacoma CC, he lacked the hip rotation that powers explosiveness. In a classic swing, first the hips open (rotate), then the torso and shoulders follow, in concert and in synchronicity. The bat then extends in a slight upward arc at contact.

Shepherd explained that because he lacked hip flexibility, he couldn’t adequately “separate” his lower and upper body and was “falling” into pitches and rotating late.

He spent time with a private baseball company, Driveline, who incorporate data-driven player development through motion capture, force plates and physics to help fine tune a swing.

“They really helped me unlock untapped potential,” Shepherd says. “So that really helped with home run ball projection and all that kind of stuff.”

Last season, Shepherd was the Harbourcats DH; hitting .345 over 40 games with nine doubles and eight home runs (The team record is nine dingers).

Shepherd came to the ‘Cats last season projected as a first baseman. But he admits he was less of a natural at the bag than at bat. As a youth, Shepherd played middle infield. But at Tacoma Community College, he realized a 6-2, 210-pound athlete is not playing second base.

“They kind of threw me to the wolves at Tacoma,” he says. “I didn’t have a whole lot of coaching on that, playing first…so I kind of learned how to play the position by myself.”

Last year in Victoria, the ‘Cats had players with NCAA division one experience at first base, so Shepherd helped where he could.

“I was learning from them (‘Cats first baggers) all the time, but when coach Haney put me in the DH spot, I kind of was able to just focus on what I feel I’m best at, and that’s hitting, he says. “When I was able to lock in and focus on that, that was me making my contribution to the team and doing what I could to help us win.

Shepherd is currently on baseball scholarship at NCAA Division 1 school Mercer College in Macon, Georgia, where he’s been training at first base since last September. The school plays a Southern Conference schedule of 56 games that begins February 13 out of 1,500 seat OrthoGeorgia Park.

“Now that I have a coaching staff that’s been able to get down and work with me on certain positional things, it’s been a lot better,” Shepherd says. “I’ve really developed in the position a lot over that last six months or so, just being here.”

Shepherd is penciled in at first base and batting lead-off or in the three hole, he says. And playing first carries more defensive duties than spitting out sunflower seeds on the bench DH-ing.

“100 percent,” he says. “So I had to work on my flexibility a little bit, and over time that got better; it all goes hand in hand. It not only made me a better first baseman, but a little bit faster, as well.”

As savvy fans realize, first base is a huge responsibility. Infield outs aren’t registered if the first basemen doesn’t have a good stretch – and really good hands.

HarbourCats’ fans will look forward to Shepherd’s return in 2026!

“You always got to be prepared for a bad throw, it’s a lot easier to relax and then just catch it instead of having to react and pick something out,” Shepherd says, “You’re already in a good position to handle that bad throw, no matter how bad it looks.”

So.

Faster, more flexible and coming back to Victoria in June in with a first season at first base at Mercer College.

Sounds like a home run record.

“Home runs for me are never on purpose, they are always kind of an accidental thing,” Shepherd says. “But once you catch it on the sweet spot of the barrel, it doesn’t feel like you’ve hit anything; it’s like you hit a marshmallow. You know you  got it real good.

Harbourcats fans say: sweet.

Shepherd and the HarbourCats begin their 2026 season on May 29th with a visit to Portland and then return to Victoria for the Home Opener against the Edmonton Riverhawks on Tuesday, June 2, 6:30 pm.

Season tickets, single-game tickets, 12 and 32-game flex packs and 2026 All-Star Game ticket packages are now on sale at harbourcats.com/tickets or at the HarbourCats office at 1814 Vancouver Street.