ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Tristan Garnett had his number called in a less than ideal spot when he came out for the sixth inning for Triple-A Lehigh Valley in a lopsided 8-0 contest against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Sept. 1. By the time the inning was over, the RailRiders had doubled their lead over the IronPigs.
Garnett retired the frame’s first two hitters, but walked three and surrendered three consecutive base hits before being pulled for position player Steward Berroa. After Berroa allowed a grand slam that scored the remainder of the baserunners charged to Garnett, the left-handed pitcher finished with a line of six earned runs surrendered on 34 pitches and just 15 for strikes.
After previously tossing 1 2/3 innings with no earned runs in his first two IronPig appearances of 2026, Garnett said he came back from the rough outing knowing just how to flush it out.
“Even the really really bad ones, I think everybody’s due for one of those once or twice in their career,” Garnett said. “Especially in moments with that much adversity, the most important thing to do is to just get back on the horse the next day and go about your business like you did the previous day.”
Garnett, 28, has not allowed a run in his three appearances out of the bullpen since. His Triple-A ERA sits at 11.57 on the year, but having pitched four out of 4 2/3 of his innings without an earned run, his Sept. 1 has been somewhat of an outlier.
He’s exclusively entered games in low-leverage relief situations, but he’s served as yet another consistent option for manager Chris Adamson to turn to out of the bullpen.
The 6-foot-6 left-hander said his greatest strength on the mound is his “unique arm angle.”
“I like to throw my changeup a lot, but my mentality is to just go after guys and attack them,” Garnett said.
This marks Garnett’s third and longest stint with the IronPigs, having joined the team on Aug. 20 after posting a 5.17 ERA in 32 games for Double-A Reading. He pitched a game each for Lehigh Valley in 2024 and 2025 — both after stints on the 60-day injured list after starting the season for the Fightins.
After an oblique injury sustained during spring training sidelined him for the first three months of the 2025 season, Garnett pitched all of 2026 without any stints on the IL; he noted that making it through the year healthy was an important box for him to check.
“Anybody who’s had an oblique injury knows that they are very difficult and come with a lot of nuances, and you don’t realize how involved obliques are in every single human action until you tear one,” he said. “I grew a lot stronger from it, and it gave me a lot of insight on how to protect my body going forward.”
Garnett’s no stranger to working on the back end. He made the most of his sole year of varsity baseball for Westview High School in Portland, Oregon, finishing the year ranked as the No. 2 left-handed pitcher in the state.
In two years primarily as a starting pitcher for Division II California State University Dominguez Hills, Garnett posted a 7-7 record with a 4.56 ERA, and subsequently signed with the Phillies organization after going undrafted in 2021.
The 6-foot-6 left-hander progressed through Single-A ball in 2022, finding his groove in the bullpen with a 1.80 ERA across Low-A Clearwater and High-A Jersey Shore, before reaching Double-A in 2023.
“There are lessons you learn at every single level when you’re in the minor leagues, and I think even in moments where you feel like the world’s coming down on you, it’s important to remind yourself that you’re there to learn and grow,” Garnett said. “As long as you do both out of those, then it’s a small notch in the grand scheme of things.”
Along the way, he made stops at the Glendale Desert Dogs of the Arizona Fall League in 2024 and Cangrejeros de Santurce of the Puerto Rican Winter League in 2025. Garnett cited both stints as key to his development, noting he got to compete against other younger minor league talent, some of which have gone on to the big leagues since.
“Getting that nod was a very important aspect for me to just understand that I’m capable of pitching at the highest level,” he said. “It was a depth of knowledge that I’ve been able to carry with me since then in my career.”
While only time will tell whether or not Garnett carved out a role for himself at Triple-A going forward, he’ll leave the 2026 season having shown he’s healthy and ready wherever the Phillies organization needs him.
