Former Braves top pick officially enters free agency after Guardians DFA

Sometimes MLB offers up a reminder of how cruel of a business it can be.

The Guardians gave us a reminder of that last week when they designated Kolby Allard for assignment as a response to Luis Ortiz being placed on non-disciplinary paid leave through the end of the All-Star break due to an MLB investigation into gambling.

The Guardians took a flier on the former first-round pick in the offseason, and he gave them everything they could have asked for by posting a 2.55 ERA in 35 1/3 innings out of the bullpen before being a victim of the roster crunch brought about by Ortiz’s suspension. 

His time with the organization officially came to an end on Tuesday after he elected free agency.

Kolby Allard became an unfortunate victim of Luis Ortiz’s suspension

As mentioned above, Allard was solid in his 35 1/3 innings this year, which still stands out as the sixth-most innings anyone has thrown out of Cleveland’s bullpen. 

A former first-round pick by the Braves in 2014, Allard has failed to live up to the hype that came with being a first-round pick. He made his MLB debut with the Braves in 2018, but only threw eight innings before Atlanta traded him to the Rangers in 2019 in exchange for Chris Martin. 

He spent three years in Texas before being shipped back to the Braves ahead of the 2023 season in exchange for Jake Odorizzi. Atlanta let him go again after one year, and he spent all of last year with the Phillies before signing a minor league deal with the Guardians. 

In total, Allard has a 5.59 ERA in 307 1/3 career innings. 

This year was his best MLB season by far. Although his fastball averaged just 90.5 miles per hour and he had a strikeout rate of just 10.5%, he still managed to get batters out thanks to his strong command (89th percentile in walk rate). 

He also did a little bit of everything for the Guardians this year. He allowed one run over six innings in his first appearance this year before tossing one scoreless inning in extra innings his next time out. 

Nine of Allard’s 16 appearances were multi-inning affairs, and he even went four innings against the Dodgers in a spot start at the end of May. 

While there were signs that teams had begun to catch up to him (he had a 4.35 ERA in 10 1/3 innings in June), he tossed three scoreless innings against the Cubs on July 2, which ironically brought about the end of his time on the roster. 

Ortiz was suspended the day after Allard tossed those three innings, so the Guardians made the decision to designate him for assignment to get a fresh arm in the bullpen. 

While that decision hasn’t come back to bite the Guardians so far (Doug Nikhazy looked great in his one relief appearance before being sent back to Triple-A to make room for Paul Sewald), it wasn’t surprising to see Allard elect free agency as opposed to staying in Cleveland’s system.  

There’s an abundance of pitching injuries across MLB right now, and he has some value as a lefty who can give a team some length. 

He also is under team control through the end of 2026 through arbitration, so he could be more of a long-term option compared to the usual bargain-bin option.