Loewen relishes unorthodox baseball journey

PHOENIX — Adam Loewen’s path to the Majors hasn’t been easy. That’s because he has had to do it multiple times — as a starter, as an outfielder and as a reliever.

The well-traveled former first-round pick most recently made it back to the big leagues when the D-backs recalled him on July 30. But it was not more than a year ago when Loewen, a baseball nut, considered no longer playing the sport he loves for the first and only time.

Loewen, then a reliever in the Phillies’ organization, was placed on the disabled list early in the 2015 season with what he calls a “phantom” injury, then he was optioned from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to Double-A Reading.

“That’s kind of when I re-evaluated whether I wanted to keep doing it or not,” Loewen said. “But I was always going to keep playing.”

So Loewen kept going, and he found himself back in the Majors in the Phillies’ bullpen later in the season. Now the 32-year-old is in Arizona, his offseason home of seven years.

But that’s the story of Loewen the reliever. There’s more than that.

Loewen was selected as the No. 4 overall pick of the 2002 Draft by the Orioles out of Fraser Valley Christian High School in Surrey, British …

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