During the Cleveland Guardians’ most recent Cactus League game, on Tuesday, spring revelation Peyton Pallette worked another scoreless frame to keep his ERA at 0.00. The Rule 5 Draft pick is making a strong case to make the Opening Day roster.
Pallette, a 24-year-old righty with big stuff and no MLB experience to this point, averaged 96.6 mph that afternoon and touched 97.1 mph. However, his mental strength and resilience are what impressed Guardians insider Joe Noga the most.
“You can see why they targeted [Peyton Pallette] and took him as a Rule 5 guy,” Noga said in the latest episode of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. “He really sort of responds when he gets into adversity.”
Pallette opened his outing with a leadoff walk, and that’s the kind of situation that might make young hurlers trying to make the team nervous. But he responded well, helped by David Fry catching former Guardian Will Brennan trying to steal second.
After that first out, Pallette got Jared Oliva and Jesus Rodriguez swinging to get the remaining two outs of the inning impressively. He generated a couple of whiffs on five swings, good for a very solid 40 percent whiff rate.
Right now, Pallette is competing with arms such as Colin Holderman and Trevor Stephan to make the Guardians bullpen, and to be fair, he has looked much better than them.
“(Pallette) doesn’t fit the Guardians’ standard physical profile — Hoynes noted on the podcast that Cleveland has cornered the market on 6-foot-6, 240-pound power arms — but his arm doesn’t know that. The stuff is real, and the results have been real,” Noga said.
It’s not like Pallette’s size is an issue: he is listed at 6’1” and 190 pounds. In any case, it has been proven time and time again that you don’t need to be 6’6” or 6’7” to be an effective pitcher, and Pallette generates excellent velocity without being a giant.
The guy has struck out seven batters in just three frames in the Cactus League, and that’s precisely the kind of swing-and-miss artist the Guardians bullpen needs.
Pallette might not be a household name yet, but he has the potential to develop into an important contributor in 2026. He could be one of those rare Rule 5 Draft success stories if he continues down this path.
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