Meet The Newest Guardian: Zak Kent

Quick dive into Kent’s makeup

Following the DFA of Triston McKenzie, Zak Kent was called up from Columbus for his first MLB stint. Kent is 27 and was acquired by the Guardians from the Texas Rangers for cash in March of 2024. He was then designated for assignment in late June, but resigned a minor league deal with the Guardians and returned to AAA. He struggled with injuries last season and only logged 25.2 innings with an unimpressive 6.66 ERA. The Guardians saw something in him though, and they decided to send him to the Arizona Fall League where he flashed some promise with a 3.78 ERA in 16.2IP.

In 2025 he was a part of big league camp but the results were not great as he posted an 8.44 ERA and terrible strikeout and walk numbers. BUT: So far in the regular season he has looked very good for the Clippers. In 7.2IP he has struck out 34.5% of hitters and posted an ERA of 2.35.

Kent has a three pitch mix: Fastball, Slider, and Curveball. The latter two are plus offerings while the fastball is about average. His Fastball is really more of a cutter; the pitch moves more arm-side than glove-side. Kent throws from an extremely high arm slot which makes him an exclusively north/south pitcher.

The issues that Kent has had in the past stem from poor control. He does not pound the zone very much and that may very well be too big of a hurdle for him at the major league level. On the bright side, he excels at generating whiffs. Those whiffs mainly come from his breaking balls, which he throws for a combined 60% of the time.

I think that Zak Kent has a chance to be a productive major leaguer if he is able to stay competitive with his pitch locations. His stuff should play well, to both righties and lefties. The Guardians seem to like this guy and I can see why, lets hope they are right to give him this chance!