Guardians ready to help top draft pick Liam Peterson reach his ceiling

The Guardians have built perhaps the league’s best reputation for pitching development, so anytime Cleveland acquires a pitcher with a high ceiling opposing front offices might already be assuming they’ll see him in a major league setting some day, and probably with a sparkling ERA.

In the case of Liam Peterson, the Guardians had been keeping on eye on him for several years. And now he’ll be part of their minor league system as one of Cleveland’s highest-ranked pitching prospects.

The Guardians selected Peterson, a 6-foot-5 right-hander from the University of Florida, with the No. 19 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. He was ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 20 prospect entering the draft. He was a fit for the Guardians in several ways, with their own comfort and familiarity with him being among the reasons — and the upper-90s fastball didn’t hurt, either.

<1 / 33

<2 / 33

<3 / 33

<4 / 33

<5 / 33

<6 / 33

<7 / 33

<8 / 33

<9 / 33

<10 / 33

<11 / 33

<12 / 33

<13 / 33

<14 / 33

<15 / 33

<16 / 33

<17 / 33

<18 / 33

<19 / 33

<20 / 33

<21 / 33

<22 / 33

<23 / 33

<24 / 33

<25 / 33

<26 / 33

<27 / 33

<28 / 33

<29 / 33

<30 / 33

<31 / 33

<32 / 33

<33 / 33

It was the first time the Guardians used their top draft choice on a pitcher since 2021, when they selected Gavin Williams, another big, athletic right-handed starter.

“We’ve known him a really long time, from his days [in high school] where he was a top prospect as well,” Paul Gillespie, Guardians senior VP of scouting operations, said. “His mindset, his desire to get better, I think fits really well with our organization … It really starts with the physical traits — size, delivery, arm action, all of those things provide him a really good foundation.”

<

Peterson is a former two-way player, giving him an athletic build capable of handling heavy workloads as a pitcher. His fastball hits 98-99 mph, which is combined with a curveball, slider and changeup. He just turned 21, and as a collegiate pitcher with his level of experience, Peterson is a candidate to climb the minor league ladder relatively quickly.

“I think we just have the resources and the tools to support these guys in a way that, I think, we can help them reach their ceilings,” Gillespie said. “I think the things he already does and the things he brings to the table are really hard to teach, just with the physicality, the arm speed, the stuff.

“We think when we bring him into our organization, there’s lot of things we can do with some of the finer points of pitching and refinement and those types of things.”

Ryan Lewis covers the Guardians for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Guardians ready to help top draft pick Liam Peterson reach his ceiling