McKenzie, Gilbert rise as strong AL arms
PHOENIX — Triston McKenzie and Logan Gilbert both dress a few lockers down from a surprise American League Cy Young Award winner. In the Cleveland Guardians’ clubhouse in Goodyear, Ariz., it is Shane Bieber, who won in 2020; in the Seattle Mariners’, in Peoria, it is Robbie Ray, who won for Toronto the next season. Neither had finished in the top three in voting before they won.
Bieber would not be surprised if the next winner were McKenzie, his Cleveland teammate.
“He’s always had a great aura about him,” Bieber said. “He knows how good he can be.”
In the search for the AL’s next pitching superstar — in the mold of Bieber, Ray and a National Leaguer, Sandy Alcantara, the unanimous Cy Young Award winner for the Miami Marlins last season — McKenzie and Gilbert stand out.
Both match the indicators of youthful promise, durability, performance and relative anonymity that made Alcantara a prime candidate for a breakout. They are only 25 years old and withstood the demands of at least 30 starts and 185 innings last season, with earned run averages under 3.25.
And unlike other dynamic young pitchers in the league, like Dylan Cease of the White Sox and Alek Manoah of the Blue Jays, McKenzie and Gilbert have yet to be named on a Cy Young ballot. That may be about to change.
TRISTON MCKENZIE
The origin of baseball’s best nickname is rooted in curiosity and genetics. McKenzie grew up in Palm Beach County, Fla., the son of physical therapists, and he would read the medical books they kept around the house. The heart fascinated him, and he thought he might become a cardiologist.
“I genuinely enjoy learning about what makes me tick,” McKenzie said.
Knowing this about McKenzie, his youth baseball teammates often called him “Doc.” When McKenzie signed with Cleveland in 2015 — turning down Vanderbilt University, where his brother, T.J., now plays — he got a new nickname: “Sticks,” for his reedy frame.
“He didn’t like that at all, so we started calling him ‘Dr. Sticks,’” said Todd Isaacs, an outfielder who played against McKenzie in high school and spent four years in Cleveland’s farm system. “It resonated around the locker room, and it stuck. Now it’s something he thrives on: Dr. Sticks, writing those prescriptions every game.”
Baseball Reference lists McKenzie at 6 feet 5 inches and 165 pounds; no other player in its database is both that tall and that light. Yet McKenzie’s deep knowledge of the body helps him make it work.
“Despite my size, I’m still pretty strong; most of the strength coaches would tell you that,” said McKenzie, who worked 1911⁄3 innings last season, and 11 more in the playoffs. “And I think the majority of me being able to go out there perform at a high level is knowing my body and understanding how I move. Knowing that I don’t actually have to look a certain way sets my mind at ease.”
For McKenzie, trusting his body has given him the confidence to fearlessly attack the strike zone. He cut his walk rate to 2.1 per nine innings last season, from 4.4 in 2021, and lowered his ERA by nearly two runs, to 2.96. McKenzie’s 0.951 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning) was the best among the 19 AL pitchers to make 30 starts.
LOGAN GILBERT
The day of his official visit to Stetson University in Florida, in November 2014, Logan Gilbert had a powerful vision of his future.
“I was watching a practice when Jacob deGrom won the Rookie of the Year Award,” Gilbert said. “It was pretty cool, because I was about to go to Stetson and it was like, ‘All right, guys make it from here.’ ”
By the end of the decade, deGrom had won two Cy Young Awards for the New York Mets, just as another pitcher from Stetson, Corey Kluber, had done for Cleveland. Neither was picked before the fourth round, and Gilbert was a first-round choice in 2018.
Even so, his availability at pick No. 14 was a relief to the Mariners. Jerry Dipoto, the team’s general manager, said the Mariners considered Gilbert the best overall draft prospect entering his junior season. Gilbert confirmed that assessment by leading the NCAA in strikeouts, with 163 in 1121⁄3 innings, but a drop in velocity worried some teams.
“We liked him when we drafted him and it was 92 miles an hour, and he came in the next spring training bumping 97,” Dipoto said. “That first year in our system, he moved through three levels and made it look easy. He’d throw a 75-pitch outing with 85 percent fastballs and just blow people up.”
Gilbert made only 10 starts above Class A before reaching the majors in 2021. He finished strong that September and did so again last year, when he ended his regular season with his first eight-inning start as a pro to help the Mariners clinch a wildcard spot.
Catcher Cal Raleigh ended the game with a homer that night, and reliever Matt Brash — developed in Seattle’s farm system after a trade from San Diego — earned the victory. It was a fitting way to vanquish a 21-year playoff drought for a team built meticulously from within.