Left-hander Parker Messick is slated to start for the Guardians opposite Brandon Pfaadt, with Cleveland holding an open 40-man spot after outrighting Trevor Stephan. Messick, a 24-year-old second-round pick from Florida State, pairs a below-premium fastball velocity (92–93 MPH) with an advanced changeup and two breaking balls of fringe-average quality. Scouting assessments diverge, with some outlets placing him as a mid-level back-end arm and FanGraphs valuing him as a higher-ranked, near-major-league starter. Messick has a 3.47 ERA across 20 Triple-A starts, a 29% strikeout rate, and a 10.3% walk rate.
The Guardians list left-hander Parker Messick as the probable starter for tomorrow's series finale in Arizona. He'll go opposite Brandon Pfaadt in his major league debut. Cleveland has an opening on the 40-man roster after outrighting reliever Trevor Stephan last week. They'll only need to make an active roster transaction tomorrow. Messick, 24, was a second-round pick out of Florida State in 2022.
Messick has only used the changeup around a quarter of the time in Triple-A this year. He has gone to his four-seam fastball, which sits between 92 and 93 MPH, half the time. He has both a slider and curveball, neither of which get more than fringe-average grades from scouts, and infrequently uses a sinker. It has seemingly left evaluators split on his value.
Baseball America and MLB Pipeline each rank him between 12th and 15th in the Cleveland farm system, projecting him as a stable back-end arm. Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs has him much higher, slotting him fourth among Guardians prospects and among the top 50 prospects in the sport. Longenhagen projects Messick as a league average starter and grades the changeup as a potential plus-plus offering.
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