3 Guardians who must bounce back in 2024

2. Triston McKenzie

Unlike the previous two entries in this list, Triston McKenzie is less about performance and more about availability.

The Guardians were only able to get 16 innings across four starts from McKenzie last season, and those are two areas that need to see a massive uptick in 2024. The truly unfortunate aspect of this from Cleveland's perspective was the rash of injuries that occurred in their pitching rotation, making McKenzie's absence felt just a bit more than usual.

In a perfect world, McKenzie will be able to return to his 2022 form, which saw him compile a 2.98 ERA and 0.951 WHIP in 31 games (30 starts). But even something along the lines of his career averages in this area prior to his abbreviated 2023 (3.68 ERA, 1.027 WHIP) would go a long for the Guardians in the upcoming season. Having another solid arm with more than a partial season's worth of starts under his belt would take a little pressure off the younger arms in their rotation (Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Logan Allen). It would also make a possible trade of Shane Bieber during the season a little more tolerable, should that be on the table.