The Guardians checklist left-hander Parker Messick because the possible starter for tomorrow’s collection finale in Arizona. He’ll go reverse Brandon Pfaadt in his main league debut. Cleveland has a gap on the 40-man roster after outrighting reliever Trevor Stephan final week. They’ll solely have to make an lively roster transaction tomorrow.
Messick, 24, was a second-round pick of Florida State in 2022. The 6’0″ southpaw has by no means blown evaluators away together with his velocity, however he has carved by means of minor league hitters behind a superb changeup. Messick has solely used the changeup round 1 / 4 of the time in Triple-A this yr. He has gone to his four-seam fastball, which sits between 92 and 93 MPH, half the time. He has each a slider and curveball, neither of which get greater than fringe-average grades from scouts, and sometimes makes use of a sinker.
It has seemingly left evaluators break up on his worth. Baseball America and MLB Pipeline every rank him between twelfth and fifteenth within the Cleveland farm system, projecting him as a secure back-end arm. Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs has him a lot increased, slotting him fourth amongst Guardians prospects and among the many high 50 prospects within the sport. Longenhagen tasks Messick as a league common starter and grades the changeup as a possible plus-plus providing. Whereas it doesn’t appear there’s an enormous hole in his perceived upside, FanGraphs seems to put a better worth than do the opposite retailers on Messick’s massive league proximity and minor league success.
That’s all of the extra true now that Messick has proven it on the high minor league degree. After recording 165 strikeouts between Excessive-A and Double-A a yr in the past, he has spent this complete season at Triple-A Columbus. Messick has turned in a 3.47 earned run common throughout 20 begins, placing out 29% of batters confronted. He has issued walks at a career-high 10.3% clip whereas averaging fewer than 5 innings per begin, however he has labored not less than into the sixth inning in six of his previous seven appearances.
Messick final pitched on Thursday, so he’ll be working with an additional day of relaxation. The Guardians optioned Joey Cantillo over the weekend, giving Messick a superb likelihood to carry a rotation spot for the remainder of the season. John Means may very well be a late-season issue as he works again from elbow surgical procedure, although that would additionally are available lengthy aid. For now, Messick slots behind Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, Slade Cecconi and Logan Allen in Stephen Vogt’s beginning 5. The Guardians have fallen three video games again within the Wild Card image after being swept by Atlanta over the weekend.
