Guardians designate former first round pick for assignment

There are certain roster transactions that happen, when they happen, do not really come as much of a surprise. There is a player who is clearly on the edge of the roster, and his time coming to an end seems more when than if. That just so happened to be the situation the Cleveland Guardians and former first round pick Triston McKenzie found themselves in.

The Guardians announced that they have designated McKenzie for assignment and have called up pitcher Zak Kent from Triple-A Columbus in a corresponding move. The 27-year-old Brooklyn native is out of options and will be made available for other teams to acquire through trade or waiver claim should other teams be willing to bring him and the high upside he showed earlier in his career into their organization.

McKenzie only made four appearances out of the bullpen for the Guardians before the decision to designate him for assignment was made. In 5.2 innings, McKenzie allowed seven runs on seven hits and seven walks while only managing to strike out four batters. This is not anything remotely close to the level that McKenzie needed to perform at to justify his spot on the roster, making Monday's events relatively expected.

Based on his usage, it was pretty obvious that McKenzie was going to find himself on the outside looking in very soon. The four games that McKenzie appeared in were lopsided affairs that finished with run differentials of five or more. Being deployed in a manner where the primary objective is to pitch no matter the result in an effort to give more effective pitchers extra rest speaks volumes about how big of a gap there is between where he's at and where he needs to be. If he were to pitch more effectively, he would not have been relegated to pure mop-up duty and could have even worked his way back into the rotation at some point, but that did not turn out to be the case.

In six seasons, McKenzie has a career 4.07 ERA, 1.156 WHIP, and 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. McKenzie appeared to be on his way to being a top-of-the-rotation arm early in his career, pitching to a 3.68 ERA, 1.027 WHIP, and 9.6 K/9 in 64 games. Unfortunately, a series of injuries have set him off course, with his 5.46 ERA, 1.613 WHIP, and 8.7 K/9 in his last 24 major league games. McKenzie has not posted an ERA below 5.00 and WHIP below 1.500 since 2022, with his last three years featuring a total lack of command. Perhaps he can correct his issues with another organization, but any step in the right direction is going to come down to cutting down walks and having effective secondary pitches.