Chris Antonetti credits Parker Messick's mindset for an impressive rookie season with the Cleveland Guardians.
Parker Messick has one, maybe two, more starts in the regular season before the Cleveland Guardians pitcher wraps up his rookie year.
Even now, with the regular season coming to an end, it's still incredible to look back and see what the 25-year-old has done during his first full year in the big leagues.
On top of that, Messick was never a lock to be in Cleveland’s rotation on Opening Day. He earned that spot during spring training and wasn’t officially told he’d be on the Opening Day roster until the final days of training camp.
President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti joked on Sunday morning that the team “knew that” Messick would be a possible Cy Young finalist in 2026, just like how the team knew Cade Smith would be an immediate contributor when he was the last player to make the roster ahead of the 2024 season.
“We’re perfect at predicting the future.”
Of course, all of this was said with tongue in cheek, but Antonetti continued his answer on Messick’s rookie year, talking about just how impressive he’s been on the mound thanks to his unwavering hard work off of it.
“Parker has done an extraordinary job. He put in a ton of work last winter to come into spring training to force our hand to make a decision. And he had a great spring training and earned a spot in the rotation,” the executive continued.
“That mindset that he had about earning a spot in the rotation; it's incredible that every day he looks at it that it's his responsibility to put in the work to earn his next start. And that's led him to continue to be relentless in his work and desire to improve and get better every day.
“He has not taken his foot off the gas pedal since day one. And then that mindset that he's had day to day, he's stacked up a lot of good days together. And now you look at where he is at the end of the season and he's pitching as well as he has all year.”
After Messick’s 30 starts this season, he ranks top-10 in MLB with a 2.57 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP.
If the Guardians do end up making it to the postseason, there’s no question of whether or not Messick will be in the playoff rotation. The only unknown is whether or not Cleveland would actually turn to a rookie in Game 1 of a postseason series.
