Parker Messick continues to make statement after statement for the Guardians 

There’s dominance, and then there’s what Parker Messick has done to start his MLB career. 

On Saturday, Messick took the hill for the third time this season and put together yet another dominant performance in the form of 6 1/3 scoreless innings. With the start, Messick now has a sparkling 0.51 ERA in 17 2/3 innings while recording 1.3 bWAR, which is the best mark in baseball. 

He may not be the biggest name in the Guardians’ rotation, but he’s quickly becoming one of the best stories of the 2026 season. 

Guardians' Parker Messick has been one of the best pitchers in baseball

While it may seem hard to believe given how well he’s pitched this season, there was a point this spring where it seemed like there was a chance that Messick was going to start the season in Triple-A. 

But the Guardians decided to break camp with him as their No. 5 starter, and it didn’t take long for him to look more like a staff ace. 

After dominating the Dodgers in his first start of the season and dazzling against the Cubs his next time out, he spent most of Saturday night making the Braves’ star-studded lineup look like a group of minor leaguers. 

Messick allowed four hits and two walks against Atlanta while also striking out five (all of which came on his changeup). 

After the game, Messick attributed his dominance to a tight focus on his game plan, and that simple approach has worked wonders for him so far this season. It may seem like a cliché, but that’s how life is for a pitcher with Messick’s arsenal. 

While his fastball averages just 92.8 miles per hour (23rd percentile), he’s been able to get hitters to chase 37% of the time. They’ve also barreled up just 2.2% of the pitches they’ve put in play. 

Those are the kind of advanced statistics that are usually associated with generational stars like Jacob deGrom or Gerrit Cole; not a soft-tossing lefty with just 10 MLB starts under his belt. 

Messick’s strong start has also come at the perfect time given how things have gone for some of the other starters in the Guardians’ rotation at the start of the season. 

While Gavin Williams has picked up where he left off last season, Tanner Bibee has struggled and has a 6.38 ERA after getting lit up by the Braves on Sunday and Slade Cecconi’s struggles with the longball have also carried over into this season. 

There’s still a lot of season left to be played so both pitchers have plenty of time left to turn things around, but it’s scary to think about where Cleveland’s pitching staff would be if it wasn’t for Messick’s strong start.