Cleveland Sports Forum

Guardians Designate Struggling Righty For Assignment

April 21, 2025

By Andres Chavez

The Cleveland Guardians were very patient with struggling right-hander Triston McKenzie over the last three seasons.

Unfortunately, that patience just ran out on Monday.

The organization finally decided to move on from the talented righty.

They officially designated him for assignment, which means he is removed from the 40-man roster.

Pitcher Zak Kent was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

Now, there are three options for McKenzie.

He will go through waivers, where he could potentially get claimed.

If that’s the case, the Guardians can lose him.

They could also work out a trade in the next couple of days, even though his value is not particularly high due to the fact that he has a torn elbow ligament and an 11.12 ERA this season.

If he goes unclaimed, there is a third option for McKenzie, if he accepts: he could join the Guardians’ Triple-A team and try to work his way back from there.

The writing was on the wall for McKenzie, though.

As Withers implied, his last outing was so ugly that it left everybody in the organization without hope that he could turn things around soon.

Last Wednesday, McKenzie allowed four runs in a single inning, on three hits and a walk.

Right now, he has more walks than strikeouts and he is all over the place with his command, which can be a direct result of his injury.

It’s hard to be effective with such a serious ailment.

Maybe he should have gotten the surgery when it was first recommended to him in 2023.

Right now, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to go under the knife, get healthy, and make a furious return in a year and a half.

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