The Guardians and Right Handers Triston McKenzie have agreed to a deal to avoid arbitration, FanSided's Robert Murray reports on X. The Octagon customer will earn a salary of $1.95 million in 2025.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz McKenzie had projected a salary of $2.4 million next year, but he actually won't reach that number. This is usually the case for deals agreed during this part of the calendar.
Friday evening is the deadline in which clubs must decide whether or not to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players. The two sides will still have plenty of time to negotiate the numbers, but clubs sometimes offer take-it-or-leave-it deals ahead of the tender deadline for players that are borderline cases. Such “pre-tender” deals are often below projections because the club essentially tells the player to take a lower salary or else he will be non-tendered and sent to free agency.
It's a remarkable position for McKenzie considering how things looked just two years ago. By the end of the 2022 season, he had thrown 344 2/3 innings with a 3.68 earned run average. He had struck out 27% of the batters he faced while issuing walks just 8.1% of the time. With the Guardians having a great reputation for finding and developing starting pitchers, it appeared they had found another rotation piece.
But McKenzie has had a tough time since then. He was injured for most of 2023, initially due to a right teres major strain. He came off the IL and made two starts, but ended up on the shelf right back, this time because of a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing arm. He opted for non-surgical rehab and was able to return for two more missions at the end of the year.
Any hopes of a recovery in 2024 were quickly dashed. His speed had dropped and he was obviously not in good mental shape. He wasn't in pain, but he said in mid-April that the possibility of hurting himself again was weighing on him. He was optioned to the minors in June after making 16 starts with a 5.11 ERA. His 21.8% strikeout rate and 14.4% walk rate were both far worse than his previous work. He posted a 5.23 ERA the rest of the way in Triple-A with roughly similar strikeout and walk rates of 23.5% and 13.9%, respectively.
More will follow.
