Parker Messick’s domination for Guardians earns high marks from ESPN’s MLB writers

The calendar turned from April to May this Friday, which serves as a great measuring stick for how teams are doing in an MLB season. Batters have gotten 100+ at-bats, starting pitchers have made 5+ starts and relievers and have worked in a variety of roles. 

As such, ESPN’s MLB team published two stories this week breaking down the first month of the season, one of which was Jeff Passan’s early season takeaways while another was David Schoenfield’s story where he named his All-Stars for April. 

And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Parker Messick was highlighted by both authors as one of the top April performers. 

Parker Messick continues to turn heads across MLB 

Messick earned his inclusion on both lists with a dominant May where he posted a 1.73 ERA in 36 1/3 innings while also carrying a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Orioles. 

He stymied the defending champion Dodgers in his first start of the year, and has just kicked things into overdrive in the time since. 

And he’s done it all with a fastball that sits around 93 miles per hour, which is a rare sight in today’s velocity focused game. 

That theme was mentioned by Passan, who included Messick on his list of “five breakout pitchers” while lauding him as a great pitching development success story for the Guardians. 

Last year we highlighted Messick as a beneficiary of the team’s pitching factory after he started his career with a great first month, but his performance this year put him right in the middle of the national conversation around star pitchers. 

That theme carried over into Schoenfield’s evaluation, who mentioned Messick as a pitcher to watch thanks to that varied arsenal where he throws each pitch 10% of the time. 

The biggest thing that’s helped unlock Messick in the big leagues has been his wipeout changeup, which he’s used to rack up 23 of his 38 strikeouts. 

Messick went 5 2/3 innings against the Rays in his last start and allowed just one run while recording nine strikeouts. The only downside was he didn’t get any run support. But even with that, his effort was clearly appercited in the Guardians' home dugout.

“He pitched his tail off for us,” manager Stephen Vogt said after Messick’s outing. “That’s what you ask for; he’s getting us into the sixth and saving the bullpen bullets.” 

All told, Messick enters his start today with a 2.25 ERA across his first 13 career starts (76 innings) and has gone from unheralded pitching prospect to the Guardians’ co-ace alongside Gavin Williams.

If Messick’s able to keep this up for the next two months then he’s going to be trading hypothetical monthly All-Star nods in for an invite to the real thing in Philadelphia in July.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow