Guardians grant veteran lefty reliever release

The Cleveland Guardians announced Thursday that left-hander Amir Garrett, who’d been pitching with their Triple-A affiliate, has requested and been granted his release. He signed a minor league deal with Cleveland back on July 25.

Garrett, 31, opened the season with the Royals — his second season with Kansas City — and pitched 24 1/3 innings of 3.33 ERA ball during his time with the team this season. Despite that strong surface-level run prevention, Garrett’s longstanding command issues reached a career-worst point in 2023, as he walked 17.9% of his opponents during that time.

The tightrope act seemed unsustainable, and the Royals clearly felt the same, designating Garrett for assignment on July 9 and releasing him a week later when they couldn’t find a trade partner. He signed with Cleveland not long after and has allowed three runs on four hits and four walks with four strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings for their Columbus club.

The hard-throwing Garrett has never possessed particularly strong command but managed to put together a nice 2018-20 run with the Reds anyhow. The southpaw pitched 137 1/3 innings during that three-year peak, logging a 3.60 ERA, 30.2% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate. Garrett’s strikeout rate has dropped with each subsequent season, however, as his walk rate has steadily climbed. He’s now logged a 5.06 ERA in his past three seasons and 117 1/3 innings.

Garrett could still latch on with a postseason hopeful that’s in search of left-handed bullpen depth down the stretch. With the trade deadline having passed, there aren’t many avenues for big league clubs to add depth at this stage of the schedule. So long as Garrett joins a new organization prior to Sept. 1, he’d be a candidate to make his way onto said club’s postseason roster — if he pitches well enough to merit such consideration, of course.