The Cleveland Guardians have made a decision regarding Triston McKenzie that wasn't necessarily what anyone saw coming.
The once-promising right-handed pitcher has spent the last few months pitching in the Arizona Complex League as the Guardians try to revitalize his career. At that rookie ball level, McKenzie has a 6.91 ERA and 1.67 WHIP.
Despite that, the Guardians have assigned McKenzie to Triple-A Columbus.
The move was announced Sunday morning.
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McKenzie, still just 28 years old, was once one of the most promising pitchers in baseball. He looked like his lanky right-handed frame would be near the front of the Cleveland rotation for years to come.
Instead, he quickly fell off, with injuries and inconsistency derailing his journey.
With this season spent at the Guardians' complex in Arizona, it's clear Cleveland wanted to try and change some things with McKenzie's approach to see if it could send him back on a positive path again.
The statistics in the ACL don't show much promise, but it is a hitter-happy environment there. The Guardians surely are looking way deeper than the numbers to decide what McKenzie's readiness for a new challenge is.
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At this point, it's really no harm for Cleveland to try McKenzie at Triple-A. If he rises to the occasion, it's a career rescued. If he doesn't, it already was trending toward the end of the line, anyway.
It'd be a remarkable sight to have McKenzie wind up back in a Guardians uniform at any point. Players don't stumble down to rookie ball and make it back. It's not how it works.
But this is progress for McKenzie, even if it was a bit unexpected. He's going to get a chance to pitch against solid competition at Triple-A. Where he goes from here in this unusual, winding baseball journey will be up to him.
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