Single-A Hill City placed Oakie on its 7-day injured list Wednesday due to a viral illness.
Oakie hadn't pitched for Hill City since June 24 before the club deactivated him two weeks later. The young righty is regarded as one of the Guardians' better lower-level pitching prospects but has struggled to a 7.15 ERA, 1.95 WHIP and 56:42 K:BB over 45.1 innings with Hill City this season.
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Guardians' Joey Oakie: Dominant close to 2025
Rotowire
Oakie has 22 strikeouts over 9.1 scoreless innings in his last two starts for Single-A Lynchburg.
Oakie has raised his stock as much as any lower-level prospect over the past few weeks, as he has shown monster stuff at the end of an up-and-down season. His upper-90s fastball can be borderline unhittable when he's locating it, and he compliments it with a plus hard slider. He received a $2 million bonus after the Guardians selected him with the No. 84 overall pick last year. Oakie has a 14 percent walk rate and 1.53 WHIP on the year, so there is plenty of reliever risk to go with a sky-high ceiling if he can stay healthy and continue refining his craft. He doesn't turn 20 until May.
