A healthy Triston McKenzie would be a difference-maker for the Cleveland Guardians

The 2024 season was one to forget for Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Triston McKenzie. Command issues and overall poor performance were the theme throughout his 16 major league starts before being sent down to Triple-A Columbus. Despite how things played out last season, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt believes that things could play out in a more positive manner for McKenzie in 2025.

Vogt believes that McKenzie could fair better in 2025, citing McKenzie's pitching workload across the major and minor leagues last season, "Now having a full year of health under his belt and he’s been working really hard, I’m excited to watch Triston throw.”. McKenzie missed all but four starts in 2023 and had two separate stints on the 60-day injured list due to a teres major muscle strain and a sprain of his right ulnar collateral ligament. Coming back from these types of injuries is not easy and it is no wonder to see why he struggled so mightily in 2024.

McKenzie's abbreviated time with the Guardians season did not go particularly well, finishing with a 5.11 ERA, 1.559 WHIP, and 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings. His time in Columbus was not better, as his ERA and WHIP increased to 5.23 and 1.631, respectively, while his K/9 ratio saw a minor uptick to 9.1 in 53.1 innings for the Columbus Clippers.

Ideally, McKenzie will be able to get back to being the pitcher who posted a 3.68 ERA, 1.027 WHIP, and 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings in his first three seasons (64 appearances, 60 starts). If he can get anywhere remotely close to pitching at this level, it would provide the Guardians with a reliable arm in their rotation behind Tanner Bibee and hopefully take the pressure off some of the lesser arms who are in the mix to outperform their talent level. If not, well, it would seem like his time with the Guardians organization would be coming to an end rather quickly.