{"id":99448,"date":"2025-04-21T14:56:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T18:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=99448"},"modified":"2025-04-21T14:56:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T18:56:15","slug":"guardians-designate-triston-mckenzie-for-assignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/21\/guardians-designate-triston-mckenzie-for-assignment\/","title":{"rendered":"Triston McKenzie\u2019s Guardians Tenure Hits a Breaking Point"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Guardians have officially designated right-hander Triston McKenzie for assignment, per Tim Stebbins of MLB.com. It signals a potentially abrupt end to a once-promising chapter in the team\u2019s rotation. While surprising to some, the move follows a string of struggles that made it increasingly difficult for the Guardians to keep him on the active roster. Once viewed as a future ace and top prospect, McKenzie now makes way for right-hander Zak Kent, who was recalled from Triple-A Columbus. His stock has fallen sharply over the past year as inconsistencies and injuries have derailed his trajectory.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:jrwmzzblbtbegomwff262gv4\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lndqhuw3x22r\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreie3yaljtmvdmtyuo4b7icojalhz5polegaa4sqtmm4pdjhxqumv6u\" data-bluesky-embed-color-mode=\"system\">\n<p lang=\"en\">The Guardians have DFA&#8217;d Triston McKenzie.<\/p>\n<p>RHP Zak Kent selected from Triple-A Columbus.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tim Stebbins (<a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:jrwmzzblbtbegomwff262gv4?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@timstebbins.bsky.social<\/a>) <a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:jrwmzzblbtbegomwff262gv4\/post\/3lndqhuw3x22r?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 21, 2025 at 1:57 PM<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.bsky.app\/static\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>A Tough Decision for the Guardians<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"108\" data-end=\"523\">McKenzie made the Guardians&#8217; Opening Day roster as a long reliever but struggled to find his footing. He gave up seven runs with a 4:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio over just 5 2\/3 innings. Since the start of the 2023 season, the 27-year-old has posted a 5.46 ERA, a 21.2% strikeout rate, and a concerning 15.6% walk rate. He also missed a significant portion of 2023 with a UCL injury, though he avoided surgery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"525\" data-end=\"834\">Just a year prior, McKenzie appeared to be on the verge of stardom. In 2022, he delivered a breakout season with 191 1\/3 innings of 2.96 ERA ball, striking out 25.6% of batters while walking just 5.9%. It was the kind of performance that fulfilled the promise he showed as one of baseball\u2019s top 100 prospects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"836\" data-end=\"1132\">However, elbow concerns lingered. In 2024, McKenzie made 16 starts but struggled mightily, finishing with a 5.11 ERA and surrendering 19 home runs in just 75 2\/3 innings. Those struggles ultimately <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/30\/guardians-need-shut-down-triston-mckenzie\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">led to a demotion<\/a> to Triple-A Columbus in late June, where he remained for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1134\" data-end=\"1467\">Since <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/08\/20\/triston-mckenzie-set-to-make-his-major-league-debut\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">debuting<\/a> on August 22, 2020, McKenzie has made 88 appearances (80 starts) for Cleveland. While he still comes with team control through 2027, his lack of minor-league options could limit his appeal on waivers. The Guardians now have seven days to either trade McKenzie or place him on outright or unconditional release waivers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1469\" data-end=\"1686\">Kent has allowed two runs on three hits and four walks with 10 strikeouts across 7 2\/3 innings in relief appearances for Columbus this season.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1469\" data-end=\"1686\">Main Photo: \u00a9 David Richard-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Guardians have officially designated right-hander Triston McKenzie for assignment, per Tim Stebbins of MLB.com. It signals a potentially abrupt end to a once-promising chapter in the team\u2019s rotation. While surprising to some, the move follows a string of struggles that made it increasingly difficult for the Guardians to keep him on the active [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":99449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[3452],"class_list":["post-99448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guardians","category-mlb","category-news","tag-triston-mckenzie"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99448","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\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99450,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99448\/revisions\/99450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}