Logan Allen and Triston McKenzie pitched their way out of the Guardians’ starting rotation last year and spent most of 2024 trying to find their way in Triple-A Columbus. Both will be with the Major League club when the Guardians open their 2025 season on March 27, but only Allen will be in the ro tation. Manager Stephen Vogt on March 23 announced Allen will be the fifth starter following Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Luis Ortiz and Ben Lively. McKenzie, a first-round draft choice by the Indians (42d overall) in 2015, will work out of the bullpen for the first time in his career. He has a career record of 21-29 in five years as a starter. Here is #Guardians manager Stephen Vogt talking about the adjustment Triston McKenzie has to make going from starting to being a reliever. pic.twitter.com/xTnmkIFtY8 — Jeff Schudel (@jsproinsider) March 23, 2025 Injuries limited McKenzie to four starts in 2023. He had control problems last season. He was 3-5 with a 5.11 ERA while giving up 19 home runs and allowing 49 walks in 75 ⅔ innings in 16 starts before being demoted to Columbus on June 30. Allen was 8-5 with a 5.78 ERA in 20 starts before being optioned to Columbus last July 7. He pitched better than McKenzie in Cactus League games this spring. Allen appeared in six games in the desert, three of them starts, and was 1-0 with a 1.89 ERA. He gave up one home run in 19 innings. McKenzie has appeared in five games with three starts. He is 0-1 with a 7.50 ERA. He has allowed three home runs and 10 earned runs in 12 innings. He has walked seven batters. Allen has walked four. “Logan had a great camp,” Vogt said on Zoom from Goodyear, Ariz. “I told him he’s a completely different picture than the one that I saw last year, and that’s a credit to him and the work that he put in this winter and this spring. “He came in and competed his backside off and then earned a spot and I couldn’t be more thrilled for Logan. He did such a tremendous job, so he’ll be the fifth starter.” McKenzie’s best season with the Guardians was 2022 when he went 11-11 with a 2.98 ERA in 30 starts. He struck out 190 batters in 191 1/3 innings. “We continue to believe that the best version of our team has Triston McKenzie in the rotation,” Vogt said. “Just right now with where we are as a team, we feel like the bullpen is a place where he can thrive. “He’s going to help us win a ton of games. It may not feel good at first to hear the news, but I told Triston, ‘We want you out there. We want you to be a big part of this team getting outs for us in big situations.’ So we’ll see how the season plays out. But yeah, I mean I think we’re excited to see what Tristan can do for us in the bullpen.” McKenzie has pitched in 84 games with the Guardians. He started all but four of them. Related Articles Cleveland Guardians | Guardians’ trade for Nolan Jones leaves Will Brennan outside looking in Cleveland Guardians | Thomas drives in four, Bibee makes final tuneup start in Guardians’ 12-4 win over Padres Cleveland Guardians | Guardians reward Tanner Bibee with five-year, $48 million contract extension Cleveland Guardians | Bo Naylor taking command for Guardians in spring training Cleveland Guardians | Guardians fall, 5-4, to Giants ...read more read less