Padres Sign Former Top-100 Prospect, 28, in Free Agency

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Triston McKenzie (24) throws water on catcher Austin Hedges, left, TV personality Andre Knott, middle and designated hitter Bo Naylor, right, after the Guardians beat the Los Angeles Angels at Progressive Field on May 4, 2024. | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Padres are taking a flier on a former top prospect who had an 11.12 ERA last season.

Pitcher Triston McKenzie, who was a consensus Top-100 Prospect prior to the 2017-21 seasons — and the top prospect in the Cleveland Guardians organization prior in 2019, according to MLB Pipeline — reportedly signed a minor league contract with the Padres.

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Aram Leighton of Just Baseball reported the agreement first on Twitter/X.

The Padres and RHP Triston McKenzie have agreed to a Minor League deal, sources tell @JustBB_Media. Includes ST invite.

McKenzie owns a 4.07 ERA in 442 MLB innings since debuting in 2020, but struggled to a 5.46 ERA in just 97.1 innings over parts of the last three seasons.

— Aram Leighton (@AramLeighton8) December 18, 2025

McKenzie had spent his entire career with the Guardians, who selected him in the first round (42nd overall) out of high school in the 2015 MLB Draft.

In 442 MLB innings since debuting in 2020, the 6-foot-5 right-hander has a 4.07 ERA. But the 2025 season saw McKenzie spend most of the season in the minor leagues. He had an 11.12 ERA when he was designated for assignment on April 21.

In 16 games (five starts) across two minor league levels last season, McKenzie was 0-3 with a 7.17 ERA. He walked 31 batters in 21.1 innings.

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Getting McKenzie's control back is the obvious first order of business for the Padres and pitching coach Ruben Niebla. Unless he can approach his 2022 walk (5.9 percent) and strikeout (25.6 percent) ratios, McKenzie's stuff is mere window dressing on a routine minor league free-agent flier.

After going 5-9 with a 4.95 ERA in 2021, McKenzie took a big step forward in his third major league season.

McKenzie made 30 starts for Cleveland in 2022, going 11-11 with a 2.96 ERA (ninth in the American League) across 191.1 innings. His 0.951 WHIP ranked third in the AL that season.

McKenzie made two more starts for the Guardians in the postseason. He shut out the Tampa Bay Rays over six innings in the AL Wild Card Series clincher. In the AL Division Series against the New York Yankees, he allowed four runs in five innings in a no-decision.

In 2023, McKenzie was diagnosed with a torn ligament in his right elbow, a diagnosis that usually leads to surgery. McKenzie reported no pain, however, and he opted to rest and rehabilitate the elbow instead.

The results suggest that was the wrong choice. McKenzie went 3-5 with a 5.11 ERA in 16 starts in 2024, spending much of the season on the injured list. When he was optioned to Triple-A, he led the majors in both walks and home runs allowed.

Last summer, McKenzie told a reporter in Arizona that his biggest hurdle "is literally just getting back to trusting my body and knowing that my stuff is good. It's not necessarily that I'm compensating or trying to avoid anything. I'm just out there competing for the sake of competing and wanting to win."

For more Padres news, head over to Padres on SI.