The Guardians are going to promote pitching prospect Gavin Williams, reports Guardians Prospective on Twitter. The right-hander will start on Wednesday, making his major league debut. He’s not yet on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move or moves will be required.
Williams, 23, was the club’s first-round pick in 2021, getting selected 23rd overall. He didn’t make his professional debut until the following season, but it was well worth the wait. He split last year between High-A and Double-A, tossing 115 innings over 25 starts with a 1.96 ERA. He struck out 33.1% of batters faced while walking 8.9%.
That strong showing, combined with his pre-draft work at East Carolina University, helped him shoot up prospect rankings this offseason. Coming into 2023, he was ranked the #20 prospect in the league at Baseball America, #81 at FanGraphs, #33 at ESPN and got the #42 slot from Keith Law of The Athletic. He also was ranked 42nd by MLB Pipeline, though he’s since moved up to #16.
Here in 2023, he’s done little slowing down. He began the year back at Double-A but posted an ERA of 0.63 in three starts and was quickly bumped up. Through nine outings at Triple-A, he has a 2.93 ERA in 46 innings, striking out 33.3% of batters faced. His 11.5% walk rate at that level is a bit high, but there’s little denying the overall success. Reports on Williams tend to highlight his triple-digit fastball while also giving praise to his curveball and slider. He also has a changeup, though that is generally seen as his fourth-best offering.
The Guardians have turned to their young pitching prospects several times this year due to various factors. Zach Plesac struggled with a 7.59 ERA and got himself outrighted off the roster. Both of Peyton Battenfield and Cal Quantrill saw their ERA climb above 5.00 before they each landed on the injured list, where they currently remain. Aaron Civale is healthy now but has only been able to make five starts thus far due to a strained oblique. Triston McKenzie was shut down in March with a teres major strain and came back last week, though he’s now on the IL again with an elbow sprain that involves his UCL and seems serious.
Amid all of that, the club has already called upon top 100 pitching prospects Tanner Bibee and Logan Allen to join the rotation alongside Civale and Shane Bieber. Bibee has a 4.05 ERA and Allen is at 3.95 through 10 starts for each. The club already had a reputation for seemingly finding excellent pitchers in the couch cushions but they continue to impress and will now be promoting their third rotation prospect of the year. That’s despite another pitching prospect, Daniel Espino, undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery earlier this year.
The club has a record of just 33-38 but that’s good enough for second place in the weak American League Central. With no teams in the division able to even stay above .500, the Guards are just two games back of the 36-37 Twins. Despite a tepid offense, perhaps their never-ending supply of young pitching can keep them in the mix the rest of the way.
As for the ever-present service time question with top prospects, Williams can only earn 103 days this year even if he stays up for the rest of the year. That won’t allow him to get to a full year in 2023 and will leave him shy of achieving Super Two status by the end of 2025. Since he was a top 100 guy coming into the season, he could theoretically earn a full year of service time by finishing in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting. However, that will be very hard to do since he’s already missed almost half the season.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Look at those k numbers. Quick, everybody to the waiver wire!!!
Cleveland seems to grow pitchers in a lab, whenever they trade or release one, they have one ready to replace them with. That’s a compliment.
Where’s Gavin has anyone seen Gavin!
The guardians are great at developing pitchers. One of the top 2 teams at doing so.
They also invest heavily in pitching if the drafts. Take a look at the 2020 and 2021 drafts for Cleveland. Crazy amount of pitchers.
2019-2022*
Essentially the polar opposite of a Mike Elias draft.
If only they could develop an equal amount of hitting.
I hate to post it buuuut, had him on my fantasy roster for past week waiting for this announcement
You certainly didn’t “whiff” on that move then, nice.
That’s what savy owners do. It takes 5 minutes to go over a teams top prospects. It takes 20-30 seconds a pop thereafter to check on a players progress. Very easy, short work to get potential large returns.
And then you waste a valuable roster spot for 3 weeks
Lol there’s that too for sure
I imagine without looking it up he won’t qualify to be a super 2.
So long Zack Plesac, we barely knew thee.
Plesac is already off the 40-man.
His WHIP is 1.087, as he has given up very few hits. He is the definition of effectively wild.
I wouldn’t worry to much
(if at all)…..
Just out of curiosity, why do most top prospects/high draft picks get a write up like this, but yet the #1 overall draft pick from two years ago, Henry Davis, wasn’t even discussed in the article y’all mentioned he was being called up?
And he’s got fantastic numbers. They look like Jason Kendall with 20+ HR pop.
Plesac to the Reds for Senzel and a PTBNL
Even with Senzel’s extensive injury history, I’d still do that if I was CLE. Plesac isn’t just a simple adjustment away from effectiveness. He’s a tangled ball of fishing line guaranteed to frustrate any pitching coach.
Why would the Reds do that?
The reds would be better off putting Senzel on waivers. Plesac could’ve been claimed and cost them nothing.
Make us proud!
Noice! Guy’s gonna destroy the career of so many MLB hitters. RIP Soto, Acuna Jr, , Franco, Judge, etc.
Guardians churning out some decent looking young arms this season
He’s gonna be a good one. Ace potential.
Definitely pulling for this guy. Watched him all the way through college at ECU.
Williams debut is the precursor to the big Shane Bieber trade which will be forthcoming.
Why trade Beiber? With that young core and Ramirez locked up now is the time to extend him if he wants to stay. They are on the cusp of a solid 5 year run, especially in that division. Both them and BAL are in fantastic positions right now to invest.
You’re correct, but there are different ways to “invest”. Unless he takes a Jose Ramirez discount, he’s not resigning in Cleveland. Plus, he’s thrown a ton of innings over the last few years and that’s going to probably catch up to him sometime during that next contract. So, if you can flip him for a young, controllable MLB hitter and some prospects, then you’ve invested in a different way. Whether it be Kluber (Clase) or Clevinger (Naylor, Quantrill) or even way back to a guy like Jake Westbrook (Kluber), we seem to know when to cut bait and usually get a nice return.
I understand both sides. But he hasn’t thrown a “ton” of innings. He’s not the ace he was in ’20, ’21 more of a Ray or Gausman but a bit younger. A thin market could certainly price him out of CLE’s risk comfort but if there was a time to invest in stability it’s now.
Jose Tena is my prediction of the guy who will come off the 40 to make room for Williams going on the 40. What sayeth the group here.