Cleveland Baseball Insider

Triston McKenzie Snubbed From MLB Network's Top 100

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Triston McKenzie deserves to be a part of MLB Network's Top 100 players list.

Tommy Wild

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MLB Network finished off its annual Top 100 players list as Spring Training games get ready to kick off this weekend.

The Cleveland Guardians had a number of their players end up on this list including Shane Bieber, Steven Kwan, Emmanuel Clase, Andres Gimenez, and Jose Ramirez. All of these players are more than deserving to be considered among the best players in MLB.

However, after browsing the rest of the list it stood out to me that a player was omitted that should absolutely be on there. This would be Guardians starting pitcher Triston McKenzie.

Here are some of his stats from the 2022 regular season:

The starting pitchers the MLB Network includes for players 81-100 are Logan Webb, Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, Nestor Cortes, and Clayton Kershaw. Yes, these players are easily more "household" names that fans will recognize, but McKenzie's numbers deserve praise. 

McKenzie has a lower ERA than Darvish and a lower WHIP than Webb and Musgrove. Dr. Sticks also had more strikeouts than Kershaw and Cortes. I will even admit there were times last season when McKenzie looked like Cleveland's ace over Bieber who came in at 76 on the list. 

Each of the players who made the list over McKenzie has been pitching at an elite level longer than him which does help their case considering these are the best players heading into the 2023 season. However, you can't deny how Sticks has gotten better every year he's pitched in the Big Leagues.

If this trend continues then there McKenzie should be on this list a year from now.

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Tommy Wild
TOMMY WILD

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