Former Guardians vagabond back in baseball wilderness after Nationals release

Last winter Zak Kent added more stamps on his baseball passport than he likely ever thought he would. After being designated for assignment by the Guardians during the Winter Meetings, he spent time with the Cardinals (twice), Rangers and Twins during the offseason before joining the Nationals midway through the 2026 season. 

Now he’s in a place where he could have another wild offseason, as the Nationals released him on Wednesday after he quietly cleared waivers. 

Former Guardian Zak Kent could have another wild offseason

Kent is the definition of a Quad-A player, as he’s continually shown enough to earn spots on a big league roster, but he’s never done enough in that time to fully earn a roster spot. 

He made his big league debut for the Guardians in 2025 and posted a 4.58 ERA in 17 2/3 innings with Cleveland. But that wasn’t enough for him to stick in Cleveland, and he followed that up with a 5.51 ERA in 16 1/3 innings in his time with the Nationals and Twins. 

The biggest thing that could impact Kent’s offseason is his struggles in the minors this season. While Kent had his big league struggles with the Guardians in 2025, he had a 2.84 ERA in 38 innings at Triple-A Columbus while racking up two saves and 50 strikeouts. 

He wasn’t able to repeat that minor league success this year, and ended up finishing the year with a 4.61 ERA in 56 2/3 innings with the Nationals and Twins’ Triple-A clubs. He was able to cut down the number of walks allowed (21 walks in 2026 after allowing 21 walks in 2025), but wasn’t able to parlay that into any significant gains. 

Kent is all but guaranteed to have to sign a minor league deal with some team, which could set up a potential reunion between him and the Guardians given his previous success with the club. Not only would adding Kent to their bullpen depth give the Guardians another proven relief arm to tinker with in their pitching lab, but it would also give them a proven arm to use in the minors this year if/when the big league is impacted by the impending lockout. 

Kent’s never going to be the biggest name in the bullpen. In fact, it seems like he’s destined to have a big league career working as a call-up whenever a team needs a fresh bullpen arm. But he has some experience working as a long reliever, and there’s plenty of empirical evidence that he’d clear waivers whenever his inevitable DFA would come. 

Last winter was a whirlwind for Kent, but the Guardians could help save him from that this winter by signing him to a minor league deal.

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