The products of the Cleveland Guardians’ developmental program have paid huge dividends in 2026. The team is in the thick of the AL playoff race and it wouldn’t be possible without the big contributions from guys like Parker Messick, Gavin Williams, Travis Bazzana, Angel Genao, Chase DeLauter, Joey Cantillo, and plenty of other exciting young talents that have surfaced in recent years.
As exciting as all of those guys have been, the Guardians still have another few waves of young talent on the way in the next few years. Top hitting prospects such as Ralphy Velazquez, Cooper Ingle, and Jace LaViolette have had fans salivating lately, but the team’s top pitching prospect has been moving up the rankings with his performance this season and is starting to get some attention on a larger scale.
Michael Avallone of MLB.com recently wrote an article highlighting the growth of Cleveland’s No. 3 prospect, Braylon Doughty, who was bumped up to Double-A Akron at the beginning of July. Doughty has made ten starts for Akron and gotten crushed in two of them, but the other eight starts have been pretty impressive despite being so young, as Avallone pointed out.
“There have been bumps along the way. Promoted to Double-A Akron on June 30, Doughty was rocked in his first outing for the RubberDucks, surrendering eight runs in 2 1/3 innings, but he’s largely been effective despite being one of the youngest pitchers on the circuit. And in an organization with a long track record of turning promising arms into big league gems, Doughty is looking more and more like the next name to know,” Avallone wrote.
Doughty was the 36th pick in the 2024 draft and is still just 20 years old, so it’s impressive he has made it to Double-A already. In 24 starts this year across two levels, he has pitched 104.1 innings to the tune of a 3.88 ERA, though that number is worse in Akron at 5.04 in his ten starts.
It’s far too early to be concerned about a couple of rough outings. The encouraging thing about his development has been the fact that he has had no problem with durability and has made 24 starts. He also has a quite impressive 114:25 strikeout-to-walk ratio over those 104.1 innings, which projects well for his long-term trajectory.
Doughty is in great hands in this organization. Cleveland has proven itself to be one of the best teams in baseball in terms of developing pitching, and Doughty could certainly be next in line.
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