Guardians Outright Carlos Hernández
Aug. 22: Hernández went unclaimed on waivers and indeed accepted an outright to Triple-A Columbus, per Tim Stebbins of MLB.com.
Aug. 20: The Guardians announced that right-hander Carlos Hernández has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move to select left-hander Parker Messick, a move which was previously reported.
Hernández, 28, was claimed off waivers from the Tigers three weeks ago. Since then, he has tossed seven innings for the Guards, allowing three earned runs but with three walks and just three strikeouts.
The righty has some intriguing attributes but he has struggled lately and is out of options. That has pushed him into fringe roster territory. Dating back to March, he has gone from the Royals to the Phillies, Tigers and Guardians via waiver claims. Now that he’s been designated for assignment and the trade deadline has passed, he will be available on waivers again in the coming days.
Hernández averages in the upper 90s with both his fastball and sinker, in addition to throwing a splitter, slider and knuckle curve. He has occasionally used that arsenal to post some interesting numbers. In 2023, for instance, he logged 70 innings for the Royals. His 5.27 earned run average obviously wasn’t great but he struck out 25.7% of batters faced, a strong figure. His 10.3% walk rate was a tad high but close to normal for a power reliever. In 2024, he dropped his ERA to 3.30, though his strikeout rate fell to 20.9% as his walk rate ticked up to 12.4%.
This year, as he has bounced around the league, he has posted a 6.23 ERA in 43 1/3 innings. His strikeout rate has dropped again, sitting at 19.2% so far. As mentioned, those results and his out-of-options status have led to him continually getting bounced to the waiver wire.
It’s still possible another club out there sees some upside. As mentioned, the pitch mix is enticing. Hernández is also theoretically controllable via arbitration for another two seasons after this one. For a rebuilding club, there would be an argument for taking a flier. However, he is already making $1.16MM this year and would be due a nominal raise for 2026, so it also wouldn’t be a shock if teams find it hard to roster him.
If this is the time he clears waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency but likely wouldn’t do so. Players with at least three years of service time have the right to reject outright assignments but need five years of service to exercise that right and keep their remaining salary commitments. Hernández is between three and five years, meaning he would have to walk away from about $245K to head to the open market. He will likely stay and collect that money but then would be able to elect free agency at season’s end if not added back to the roster beforehand.
Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images
Guardians To Promote Parker Messick
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. The 6’0″ southpaw has never blown evaluators away with his velocity, but he has carved through minor league hitters behind an excellent changeup. 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. While it doesn’t seem there’s a huge gap in his perceived upside, FanGraphs appears to place a higher value than do the other outlets on Messick’s big league proximity and minor league success.
That’s all the more true now that Messick has shown it at the top minor league level. After recording 165 strikeouts between High-A and Double-A a year ago, he has spent this whole season at Triple-A Columbus. Messick has turned in a 3.47 earned run average across 20 starts, striking out 29% of batters faced. He has issued walks at a career-high 10.3% clip while averaging fewer than five innings per start, but he has worked at least into the sixth inning in six of his past seven appearances.
Messick last pitched on Thursday, so he’ll be operating with an extra day of rest. The Guardians optioned Joey Cantillo over the weekend, giving Messick a good chance to hold a rotation spot for the rest of the season. John Means could be a late-season factor as he works back from elbow surgery, though that could also come in long relief. For now, Messick slots behind Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, Slade Cecconi and Logan Allen in Stephen Vogt’s starting five. The Guardians have fallen three games back in the Wild Card picture after being swept by Atlanta over the weekend.