The Guardians are among the clubs to have reached out to the Marlins about left-hander Braxton Garrett‘s availability, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. The Fish are known to be open to offers on Garrett, who’s spent the bulk of the season in Triple-A Jacksonville.
Garrett, who’ll turn 29 on Wednesday, was the seventh overall pick in the 2016 draft. He had a breakout showing with Miami in 2022-23, tossing 247 2/3 frames with a 3.63 ERA, 23.8% strikeout rate, 5.1% walk rate and 48.7% ground-ball rate. He’d fallen sharply on their prospect lists prior to that breakout but suddenly looked to be a late-blooming building block — until injury struck. Garrett suffered a UCL tear in 2024 that wiped out the bulk of that season and all of his 2025 campaign.
Though he’s healthy now, Garrett has received only two big league looks this season — none since May. That comes despite missed time for each of Max Meyer, Eury Pérez and Janson Junk. Garrett was hit hard in his two MLB appearances (seven runs, eight walks in 4 1/3 MLB frames) but has pitched well in Triple-A for most of the season. He’s run into a tough patch recently, serving up a combined 13 runs over his past two appearances, but Garrett still has a 2.90 ERA in 77 2/3 Triple-A frames this year. He’s fanned 26.4% of his opponents against a 9.2% walk rate.
Garrett is controllable via arbitration for two more years. He’s being paid a reasonable $1.525MM in 2026. This is his final minor league option year, so any team that acquires him will need to carry him on the 2027 roster or else designate him for assignment, but Garrett is an interesting change-of-scenery candidate for any club seeking controllable pitching help.
In a larger column, Jackson looks at the Marlins’ decision to keep Garrett in Triple-A for much of the season. He’s been passed over for journeyman/swing types like Junk, Tyler Phillips and Ryan Gusto, none of whom has the sort of track record or draft/prospect pedigree Garrett can claim. However, Jackson writes, the Marlins had some changes they wanted Garrett to make during spring training, but he was reluctant to incorporate sweeping changes. That hesitation, coupled with concern that further tough outings in the big leagues would diminish his trade value, have led to Garrett spending most of his season in Jacksonville.
While Miami isn’t likely to receive an especially significant return for Garrett, there’s still good sense to making a move now. The Fish don’t seem all that keen on giving him another chance in the major league rotation, and he’ll have more value now, when a team can spend the remainder of the 2026 season working with him (perhaps in Triple-A), than he would following the year.
The Guardians don’t have a major need for rotation help, but Cleveland has a good reputation for developing pitchers. The depth beyond the current top five in the major league rotation also isn’t that compelling. Cleveland has Gavin Williams, Parker Messick, Tanner Bibee, Slade Cecconi and Joey Cantillo making starts and has been fortunate to wholly avoid injuries to that core group. Southpaw Logan Allen is on hand in Triple-A, but that’s about the extent of the Guardians’ MLB-tested rotation depth, so bringing in Garrett to bolster that depth and give them a possible option for 2027 makes some sense. Other clubs will surely be in play, but there’s a decent chance Garrett ends up changing hands before tonight’s 6pm ET deadline.
