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'Comfortable in my own skin': Triston McKenzie pitching in Arizona in comeback attempt
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- 'Comfortable in my own skin': Triston McKenzie pitching in Arizona in comeback attempt
CLEVELAND — It hasn't been an easy road for Guardians pitcher Triston McKenzie .
After a breakout 2022, McKenzie has been plagued by shoulder and elbow injuries that have, for the moment, derailed a promising career and what looked like yet another Cleveland pitching success story.
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McKenzie had an electric MLB debut in 2020 and a breakout 2022 season in which he posted a 2.96 ERA and struck out 190 hitters, placing him second in the rotation behind former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber .
Now he's attempting another chapter in his comeback story. That path back has taken him from the injured list to Cleveland to Columbus to waivers and, now, to Arizona at the team's complex in Goodyear, where he's nearly 2,000 miles from where he wants to be pitching.
Along the way, it's been a process of McKenzie rediscovering the trust in his arm. His elbow had let him down, and he couldn't help but wait for it to happen again.
"I think there was a large portion of time where I was throwing out there and I wasn't necessarily getting sore how I normally would, or I wasn't necessarily hurting, but I was very aware of my arm and I was very conscientious of it," McKenzie said earlier this season. "Even when I was out there throwing, any slight twinge, any slight awareness of my elbow, I was like, 'Oh, my God, it's something wrong again.' It was on my mind constantly."
Cleveland Guardians pitcher Triston McKenzie tosses a football on the field before a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 20, 2025, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Triston McKenzie injury, stats
Coming off that breakout 2022 season, McKenzie pitched only 16 innings in 2023. He opened 2024 in the rotation but, by the time he was optioned to Triple-A, he was leading the majors in both walks and home runs allowed.
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He opened 2025 in the major league bullpen, hoping to find a new level of aggressiveness, but he was tagged for seven runs and four walks in 5⅔ innings before being designated for assignment .
McKenzie felt he had finally reached the point of having confidence that his arm would hold up, a process two years in the making.
"I think that's been the biggest hurdle for me is literally just getting back to trusting my body and knowing that my stuff is good," McKenzie said. "It's not necessarily that I'm compensating or trying to avoid anything. I'm just out there competing for the sake of competing and wanting to win."
After being DFA'd on April 21, McKenzie was put on waivers. Every team passed. He was trusting his arm again, but the results weren't following. Pitchers have at times found positive results after a temporary move to the bullpen that effectively reset some things — Carlos Carrasco is one such example — but McKenzie didn't find the same outcome.
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He's now pitching in the Arizona Complex League, the next step in a winding, difficult road to rediscover the sky-high potential Cleveland saw for a full season in 2022.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Guardians pitcher Triston McKenzie working way back from injuries
