{"id":37105,"date":"2020-08-20T18:58:25","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T22:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=37105"},"modified":"2020-08-20T18:58:25","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T22:58:25","slug":"triston-mckenzie-set-to-make-his-major-league-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/08\/20\/triston-mckenzie-set-to-make-his-major-league-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Triston McKenzie Set to Make His Major League Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On a day when there were a number of notable call-ups around baseball, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/cleveland-indians\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cleveland Indians<\/a> announced one of their own. The team announced that the organization&#8217;s ninth best prospect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=mckenz000tri\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Triston McKenzie<\/strong><\/a> would be recalled this weekend. Furthermore, the team announced that the right-hander would make his MLB debut on Saturday against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/detroit-tigers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Detroit Tigers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Hoynes who writes about the Indians for Cleveland.com had the news first. A link to the story featured below can be found here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/tribe\/2020\/08\/triston-mckenzie-will-make-big-league-debut-saturday-in-start-vs-detroit.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/tribe\/2020\/08\/triston-mckenzie-will-make-big-league-debut-saturday-in-start-vs-detroit.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cleveland Indians\u2019 Triston McKenzie will make big-league debut Saturday in start vs. Detroit <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XdCZMeTeJ3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/XdCZMeTeJ3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; paul hoynes (@hoynsie) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hoynsie\/status\/1296500661828366337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 20, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>So far this season, the primary hallmark of the Indians success has been the starting rotation. After all, heading into play Thursday the team currently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/stats\/team\/pitching\/era?sortState=asc\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">leads<\/a> all of baseball with a 2.61 ERA over 24 games or 214 innings of work. Furthermore, the team ranks first in strikeouts (250) and has issued the second-fewest walks (57) of any team. Only the St. Louis Cardinals rank better in that category.<\/p>\n<p>With the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/2020\/08\/18\/the-current-dilemma-facing-the-cleveland-indians-zach-plesac-mike-clevinger\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">uncertainty<\/a> surrounding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/plesaza01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Zach Plesac<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/clevimi01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Mike Clevinger<\/strong> <\/a>with the trade deadline approaching, the Indians could simply be evaluating their options with this move. However, it could also be a move simply to manipulate service time, especially for Plesac. Regardless of the reasoning, McKenzie should be a game-changer for an already strong rotation.<\/p>\n<h2>More on Triston McKenzie<\/h2>\n<p>Last season, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/prospects\/indians\/triston-mckenzie-663474\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Triston McKenzie<\/a> dealt with an upper-back strain which ended up derailing his entire 2019 campaign. If McKenzie was healthy, he likely would have made his MLB debut at the end of last season.<\/p>\n<p>Scouts note that McKenzie features a three-pitch mix which is highlighted by his fastball. McKenzie&#8217;s fastball typically sits between 91 and 96 miles per hour (MPH). In addition, scouts believe it is a plus pitch because of the movement that it features. The 23-year old is able to throw it with a lot of spin and extension as it moves towards home plate.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the righty relies on a curveball that sits in the upper-70&#8217;s. McKenzie has the ability to really deceive opposing hitters with his curve because it features so much spin. Finally, the other pitch in his repertoire is a changeup that left-handed hitters have a very hard time making contact with. On the scouting scale, McKenzie received a grade of 60 for his fastball and curveball. Meanwhile, his changeup got a grade of 55 overall.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest takeaway about McKenzie is that he is definitely a strike-thrower. Since starting in rookie ball during the 2015 season, he has racked up 394 strikeouts over 59 starts. In addition, McKenzie has held opponents to a .194 batting average in that span. As he continues to gain experience at the big league level, he should only continue to get better.<\/p>\n<h2>Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>Regardless if this move was made in anticipation of the looming August 31st trade deadline or simply to add a jolt to the Indians pitching staff, it is a very exciting one for sure. Heading into play Thursday, the team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/standings\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sits<\/a> in second place, a half-game back of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/minnesota-twins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Minnesota Twins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Main Image<br \/>\n<a id=\"-LVXQJSbS_hq4sfhzHGcCA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1203406491\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'-LVXQJSbS_hq4sfhzHGcCA',sig:'kL2YfGQb6BmUifOrHQfTdkXVtRzkklqeYspL18JdRrY=',w:'396px',h:'594px',items:'1203406491',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On a day when there were a number of notable call-ups around baseball, the Cleveland Indians announced one of their own. The team announced that the organization&#8217;s ninth best prospect Triston McKenzie would be recalled this weekend. Furthermore, the team announced that the right-hander would make his MLB debut on Saturday against the Detroit Tigers. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3320,"featured_media":37123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1071,35],"tags":[352,941,664,3452,3415],"class_list":["post-37105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guardians","category-mlb","category-news","tag-cleveland-indians","tag-latest-mlb-news","tag-mike-clevinger","tag-triston-mckenzie","tag-zach-plesac"],"modified_by":"Jared Cantatore","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}