Healthy McKenzie channels lessons from tough '24
GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- He was there in Progressive Field¡¯s lower bowl, his 6-foot-5 frame an exclamation mark that gave him away in that sea of red-clad dots.
There would be no anonymity for Triston McKenzie when he attended two of the Guardians¡¯ home playoff games last October. The fans around him caught on quickly.
¡°I wasn't really happy about being in the stands,¡± McKenzie says now. ¡°But everybody was supportive. They all were like, ¡®We want you out there!¡¯¡±
Had things gone as McKenzie intended in 2024, he would have been out there -- as a key member of the Guardians¡¯ rotation in their return to October, two years after his terrific pitching helped punch their ticket to the 2022 ALDS.
But McKenzie¡¯s season, which was preceded by his decision to rehab a partially torn ligament in his right elbow rather than having it surgically repaired, never got on track. Though the elbow was sound enough to make it through a season, McKenzie had trouble trusting it and, by extension, his stuff. In 16 starts, he was roughed up to the tune of a 5.11 ERA and way too many taters (19 in 75 2/3 innings), leading to a humbling demotion to Triple-A Columbus on June 30.
That¡¯s where McKenzie spent the rest of the season. So all he could do was watch as his boys beat the Tigers in the ALDS and advanced to the ALCS against the Yankees.
The supportive teammate that he is, McKenzie decided to watch from the stands, not the couch.
¡°I felt like a little kid,¡± he says, ¡°watching my team play in the playoffs.¡±
Of course, the stands are not where McKenzie aspires to be.
It¡¯s a new season now, and it begins Saturday with the opening of Cactus League play at Goodyear Ballpark against the Reds. Instead of sitting in the crowd, the 27-year-old McKenzie will be where he¡¯d rather be: on the mound, ball in hand. In his bullpen and live BP sessions on the back fields, McKenzie (who trained at Cressey Sports Performance in Florida over the winter) has been up to 95 mph with his fastball -- an enticing sign for a player who is out of Minor League options and whose every outing will be monitored closely as he tries to reclaim the rotation spot he lost in 2024.
¡°He finally had a healthy offseason for the first time in a while,¡± manager Stephen Vogt said. ¡°He definitely got after it. His reflections on last year are just incredibly mature. Just to see where he is today versus a year ago, his body's moving better, he feels 100 percent healthy, and we're excited to see what Triston can do.¡±
With each pitch, McKenzie is more focused on the glove pop than the potential elbow pop.
¡°Trust is a big word,¡± he said. ¡°Baseball is a super specific sport, a nuanced sport where you have to do one thing very well over and over and over. I felt like last year I was doing six different things as opposed to just focusing on what made me really good. So that¡¯s kind of the biggest thing, trusting that the one thing that we¡¯re doing is the thing that¡¯s going to work instead of bouncing between a bunch of different ideas.¡±
It was a bit surprising that McKenzie himself didn¡¯t bounce back to the Majors in the second half last year. There were needs and opportunities in the rotation throughout the Guardians¡¯ season, so the club could have brought him back into the fold even for a spot start if it felt he was well-positioned for such an assignment. Instead, he stayed with the Clippers and put his work in.
¡°What kind of kept me focused throughout everything was reminding myself that the work we¡¯re putting in down there isn¡¯t useless,¡± McKenzie said. ¡°[Returning to the Majors] wasn¡¯t something I needed to worry about. It was more, ¡®How can we be better for tomorrow, next week, next month and next year?¡¯¡±
Now that it is ¡°next year,¡± McKenzie hopes to seize the moment -- and the rotation spot -- that allows him to be a postseason participant instead of a spectator.
¡°I think last year we were kind of hurting for starters in terms of consistency,¡± he said. ¡°Tanner [Bibee] did a great job, and that¡¯s what I¡¯m trying to provide this year, just being able to go out there and hopefully be a guiding force.¡±