Parker Messick

Messick grew up in Plant City, Florida where he attended Plant City High School. He won the Wade Boggs Athletic Achievement Award during his junior year after batting .298 with four home runs as a first baseman and going 6–3 with a 1.58 ERA and 45 strikeouts as a pitcher. As a senior, Messick struck out a state-leading 125 batters with an 11–1 record and a 1.06 ERA over 86 innings and was named Florida Mr. Baseball. Messick went 1–1 with one save and a 0.77 ERA and struck out 19 batters in innings over six relief appearances during his true freshman season before it was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. After the season, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Winter Garden Squeeze of the Florida Collegiate Summer League. Messick won the league's Cy Young Award after going 3–0 with a 0.49 ERA and striking out 27 batters against five hits and three walks in innings pitched. As a redshirt freshman, Messick posted a 8–2 record with 126 strikeouts and a 3.10 ERA in 90 innings pitched and was named the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Freshman of the Year, the Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Year, first team All-ACC, and a third team All-American by Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. He was also occasionally used as a designated hitter and batted .225 with one home run, which he hit in his first collegiate plate appearance, and five RBIs in 40 at-bats. During the summer of 2021 Messick was named to USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team (CNT), where 46 of the Nations best teamed up to play an 11 game series (Stars versus Stripes) throughout the Appalachian League venues and a 3 game series with USA's Olympic National Team. He was again named the Seminoles' Friday night starter going into his redshirt sophomore season. Messick was also named to the watchlist for the Golden Spikes Award and the Preseason Pitcher of the Year by Perfect Game USA. ==Professional career==

The Cleveland Guardians selected Messick in the second round with the 54th overall selection in the 2022 Major League Baseball draft. He signed with the team on July 30, 2022, and received a signing bonus of $1.3 million. He made his professional debut in 2023, splitting the year between the Single-A Lynchburg Hillcats and High-A Lake County Captains; in 26 appearances (24 starts) for the two affiliates, Messick logged a cumulative 5–6 record and 3.77 ERA with 136 strikeouts across innings pitched. In 2024, Messick made 27 appearances (26 starts) split between Lake County and the Double-A Akron RubberDucks, accumulating a 9–6 record and 2.83 ERA with 165 strikeouts and one save across innings pitched. Messick began the 2025 season with the Triple-A Columbus Clippers, compiling a 5–6 record and 3.47 ERA with 119 strikeouts across 20 starts. On August 20, 2025, Messick was selected to the 40-man roster and promoted to the major leagues for the first time. In his second start on August 26, Messick recorded his first career win after striking out six across seven scoreless innings against the Tampa Bay Rays. On April 16, 2026, Messick came three outs short of pitching a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles. On the first pitch of the ninth inning, Leody Taveras hit a single to end the no-hit bid. Messick was removed after giving up a single to Blaze Alexander. This would have been the first Cleveland no-hitter since Len Barker's perfect game against the Toronto Blue Jays in 1981, and would have given the Blue Jays the longest no-hit drought. This also marked Cleveland's sixth straight no-hit bid that was broken up in the ninth inning, which is tied for the second-longest streak since 1961. ==References==