Former Guardians ace reaches new heights in spring debut with NL contender

At this time last year, the Cleveland Guardians’ front office was having an internal debate about what to do with pitcher Triston McKenzie. 

While McKenzie ended up breaking camp with the team, his tenure on the Guardians’ big league roster ended up lasting a little over two weeks before Cleveland DFA’d him after 5 2/3 disappointing innings. 

He ended up clearing waivers and spending the rest of the season in the Guardians’ minor league system, where he allowed 17 runs in 21 2/3 innings while struggling with velocity issues. 

After lingering in free agency for a couple of months, McKenzie inked a minor league deal with the Padres that included an invite to big league free agency. 

And while there’s still a lot of time left in the spring, the early returns from McKenzie’s spring training debut with the Padres are enough to make any Guardians’ fans ears perk up. 

Although McKenzie allowed four runs in 2/3 of an inning in his spring debut, he hit 97 miles per hour with his fastball, marking the fastest pitch that he's since his rookie season in 2020.

Former Guardians pitcher nearly hits triple digits with his fastball in spring debut with Padres 

McKenzie’s performance against the Dodgers on Saturday pretty much sums up how things went for him last year in Cleveland.

While he had that eye-popping velocity on his fastball, he also allowed two walks, surrendered a ball on a pitch clock violation and gave up an RBI double with an exit velocity of 108 mph. 

It wasn’t that long ago that McKenzie was thought of the Guardians’ next great ace after his electric debut season in 2020 and breakout season in ‘22 when he looked like a bonafide ace. 

The Guardians opened up extension talks with him in the ensuing free agent but neither side were able to agree to a deal. That ended up serving as a precursor to a rough three year stretch where McKenzie had a 5.46 ERA in 97 1/3 innings while also being hampered by a shoulder injury. 

But even with those struggles, there’s still somewhat of a clear path for him to make the Padres’ roster thanks to the lack of big league pitching depth thanks to GM AJ Preller’s aggressiveness. 

McKenzie’s going to need to have a little more on-field success this spring if he wants to win one of the team’s open spots in the rotation, but his strong fastball velocity on Sunday was a good start toward getting that.