Will Wilson

Guardians Select George Valera

By Darragh McDonald | September 1, 2025 at 10:00am CDT

Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 today. Zack Meisel of The Athletic reports that the Guardians are calling up outfielders George Valera and Jhonkensy Noel as well as right-hander Zak Kent. Infielder Will Wilson is being optioned to open a third active roster spot. Valera wasn’t on the 40-man but the Guardians had vacancies there.

Valera, now 24, was once one of the top prospects in baseball. He crushed his way through the lower levels of the minors. He was eligible for the Rule 5 draft back in the 2021-22 offseason but the Guards made the easy decision to give him a 40-man spot and protect him.

More recently, some injuries and Triple-A struggles dropped his stock. Hamate surgery and a hamstring strain limited him to just 79 games in 2023. Another hamstring strain limited him at the start of 2024 and then that season was later ended by surgery to address a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee. As the recovery for that procedure was going to carry into 2025, the Guards decided to non-tender Valera. That opened a 40-man roster spot for the offseason, when there’s no injured list, but ran the risk of Valera signing elsewhere.

Thankfully, the Guards were able to get him back via a minor league deal for 2025 and he has seemingly gotten back on track at the plate somewhat. Over those injury-shortened 2023 and 2024 campaigns, he slashed .235/.343/.427 in the minors for a wRC+ of 99. Here in 2025, he has been able to appear in 28 Triple-A contests with a .255/.346/.457 line and 113 wRC+.

Though he spent two years on Cleveland’s 40-man, this is his first time getting called up to the show. He is in today’s lineup, batting seventh and serving as the designated hitter, and will make his major league debut in the process.

The Guards are hanging around the playoff race, currently just four games back of the final Wild Card spot, and will add Valera into the outfield mix alongside Noel, Steven Kwan, Daniel Schneemann, C.J. Kayfus, Nolan Jones and Ángel Martínez.

Going forward, Valera could spend more time in Triple-A next year if the Guards don’t have big league playing time for him. Given how much time he has missed due to injury, he would ideally get regular playing time somewhere. He spent three years on the 40-man and therefore burned three options but the Guards could apply for a fourth for 2026. A team is sometimes granted a fourth option for a player who has missed significant time due to injury.

Photo courtesy of Adam Cairns, Imagn Images.

AL Central Notes: Thomas, Ragans, Lynch, Cobb

By Mark Polishuk | July 6, 2025 at 8:59pm CDT

Prior to today’s game, the Guardians placed outfielder Lane Thomas on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to July 5), as Thomas is again dealing with plantar fasciitis in his right foot. Infielder Will Wilson was called up from Triple-A to replace Thomas, who is headed to the IL for the third time this season. The first placement was due to a bone bruise in his right wrist, and the last two placements were prompted by Thomas’ recurring foot problems. Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt told MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins and other reporters that Thomas again started to feel discomfort in his foot during Friday’s game, so the team decided to see if the combination of an IL stint and the All-Star break can provide enough time for Thomas to finally heal up.

The injuries have contributed to a brutal .160/.246/.272 slash line over 142 plate appearances for Thomas, though he was starting to heat up a little with an .816 OPS and three homers in last 38 PA. Thomas’ struggles have been emblematic of an ugly offensive year for the Guardians as a whole, and today’s loss to the Tigers extended the Guards’ losing streak to 10 games. It increasingly seems like Cleveland will be sellers at the deadline, yet Thomas’ injuries and lack of production will probably mean the Guards won’t be able to move the impending free agent.

Guardians Select Will Wilson

By Darragh McDonald | April 22, 2025 at 1:40pm CDT

The Guardians announced that they have selected the contract of infielder Will Wilson. He will take the active roster spot of outfielder Lane Thomas, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a bone bruise in his right wrist, retroactive to April 20. To open a 40-man spot for Wilson, right-hander Trevor Stephan has been transferred to the 60-day IL.

Thomas has been dealing with the wrist issue for a quite a while, as he was hit by a pitch in that area back on April 8th (video from MLB.com). He wasn’t immediately placed on the IL but didn’t play again for about a week, as he entered the April 15th contest as a pinch hitter. He then started the April 16-18 contests and entered the game on April 19th as a pinch hitter again, but hasn’t appeared in the club’s past two games.

The fact that he wasn’t immediately placed on the IL suggests it’s not a major injury but it’s possible it has been contributing to his awful season, as he currently sports a line of .156/.188/.178 on the year. It seems a decision has been made to let him heal up for a week or so, as opposed to continuing to play through it with poor results.

That will allow Wilson to get to the majors for the first time, which has been a winding road. He was a first round pick of the Angels in 2019, getting selected 15th overall and signing a $3.4MM bonus. Just a few months later, in December of 2019, he was flipped to the Giants in what was essentially a salary dump deal. The Giants took on infielder Zack Cozart, who was owed $12.67MM for the 2020 season, in order to acquire Wilson. The Angels received a player to be named later, whom was later named as left-hander Garrett Williams, and then quickly signed Anthony Rendon to a seven-year $245MM deal to replace Cozart at third base.

The Giants released Cozart a month later, clearly signaling that they only took on his deal as a means of acquiring Wilson, but that didn’t work out for them. Wilson stalled out in the upper levels of the minor leagues. Over 2023 and 2024, he split his time between Double-A and Triple-A but hit just .222/.297/.346 for a wRC+ of 76. His stock had fallen enough that the Giants left him unprotected in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft in December, when the Guardians snatched him up.

He’s out to a strong start with his new club, as he has slashed .324/.418/.647 in 18 Triple-A games thus far. Part of that is a .340 batting average on balls in play but he’s also drawing walks at a 12.7% clip and only striking out at a 19% pace. He’s done that while playing mostly third base but also some shortstop and second base.

He won’t directly replace Thomas, who was previously the club’s center fielder, but he will give the club an extra body as they move some versatile pieces around. Utility players like Ángel Martínez and Daniel Schneemann can help cover center while Wilson can perhaps take over as the resident depth infielder for now.

As for Stephan, he underwent Tommy John surgery in March of last year and started this year on the 15-day IL. His current status is unknown but it appears the Guards don’t expect him back before late May, based on this transfer.

Photo courtesy of Samantha Madar, Imagn Images.

60-Man Roster Notes: Orioles, Phillies

By TC Zencka | July 4, 2020 at 11:18am CDT

As teams continue to get health and travel reports, many have slots left to fill on their 60-man rosters, so we’ll use this post throughout the day to track the minor changes.

LATEST

The Giants added four names to their 60-man player pool: Will Wilson, Camilo Doval, Luis Toribio and Chad Tromp, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports. It’s a group of fairly high-end prospects for the Giants, highlighted by Wilson, whom they essentially spent $12.6MM to acquire last year by taking on Zack Cozart’s contract, writes Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. Catcher Chadwick Tromp has the best chance to train with the major league camp, as the others are more likely to head to the alternative camp when it opens in Sacramento, per Schulman. The Giants have four empty slots remaining from their 60-player pool.

EARLIER TODAY

The Orioles added Evan Phillips to their 60-man roster, per MASN’s Roch Kubatko. Baltimore gave themselves more leeway than most, however, and they still have 15 slots available on their 60-man roster. The Maryland native made 25 appearances out of the Orioles’ bullpen in 2019, pitching to a 6.43 ERA/3.96 FIP. Phillips joined the Baltimore organization from Atlanta as part of the Kevin Gausman/Darren O’Day trade from deadline day 2018.
The Phillies added two catchers to their 60-man roster, per Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Henri Lartigue and Logan O’Hoppe will bring the Phillies’ total number of catchers to five. Lartigue, 25, hit .136/.259/.248 in 78 games in Double-A last year. O’Hoppe, 20, went to the Phillies in the 23rd round of the 2018 draft. In Low-A in 2019, the New York native hit .216/.266/.407. The pair of catchers are presumably in camp to spread the defensive workload. J.T. Realmuto, Andrew Knapp, and Deivi Grullon are far better bets to see any game time once the season opens.

Giants Acquire Zack Cozart

By Connor Byrne | December 12, 2019 at 4:38pm CDT

Dec. 12: The Angels announced that they’ve acquired left-hander Garrett Williams from the Giants as a player to be named later, thus completing the Cozart swap. Sending him out as a player to be named later seems likely have been a measure of ensuring that Williams wasn’t selected in today’s Rule 5 Draft.

Williams, 25, was the Giants’ seventh-round pick back in 2016 and just completed his second season at the Double-A level, where he posted a 3.60 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 5.0 BB/9, 0.49 HR/9 and a 55.7 percent ground-ball rate in 110 innings (20 starts, nine relief outings). Williams, who was the Giants’ No. 29 prospect at MLB.com and landed outside the top 29 at FanGraphs, draws praise for a plus curveball but is obviously lacking in the command department. He’s averaged 4.9 BB/9 in his pro career to date, including a 5.7 mark in two seasons of Double-A ball.

Dec. 10: The Giants have acquired infielder Zack Cozart and shortstop prospect Will Wilson from the Angels for cash considerations or a player to be named later, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times reports. San Francisco will pay all of Cozart’s $12.167MM salary for 2020, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

Cozart joined the Angels as a high-priced free-agent signing two winters ago, when he inked a three-year, $38MM contract after a career campaign with the Reds. But Cozart was neither healthy nor effective as a member of the Angels, with whom he consistently struggled to perform and dealt with injuries. The 34-year-old took just 107 plate appearances in 2019, when he slashed a horrid .124/.178/.144 without a home run and missed the majority of the season with shoulder problems. Cozart’s year came to an end in mid-July when he underwent what the Angels called an “arthroscopic debridement of his left shoulder.”

Getting rid of Cozart looks like a major score for the Angels, who could use his money to further improve their chances of landing a major free agent (Gerrit Cole? Anthony Rendon?). In the Giants’ case, it’s unclear how much playing time Cozart will receive next season. They already have Evan Longoria at third base and Brandon Crawford at shortstop, after all, with youngster Mauricio Dubon possibly in line to garner the lion’s share of reps at second base.

Considering Wilson’s involvement, this may be a case of the Giants essentially buying a prospect. The 21-year-old Wilson, formerly with North Carolina State, is just months removed from joining the Angels as the 15th pick in the 2019 draft. The Angels paid $3.4MM to lock up Wilson at the time, but they’ve now deemed him expendable in an effort to get Cozart’s money off the books.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Angels To Sign First-Rounder Will Wilson

By Connor Byrne | June 10, 2019 at 9:31pm CDT

The Angels have agreed to sign first-round pick Will Wilson, per a team announcement. Wilson will receive $3.4MM, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports. That falls short of the $3,885,800 recommended slot value for Wilson’s selection (No. 15).

Wilson’s a shortstop from North Carolina State who was considered a consensus top 25 prospect entering the draft. FanGraphs (No. 15), ESPN’s Keith Law (No. 19), MLB.com (No. 21) and Baseball America (No. 22) are each bullish on Wilson, who slashed .339/.429/.665 with 16 home runs in 221 at-bats during his final year at NC State.

In their free scouting report, Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com write Wilson “has a high floor as a steady up-the-middle defender with surprising power.” He may not possess the speed to stick at short, though, and could end up as a second baseman in the pros.

The Angels went into the draft with just over $7.6MM to spend on picks, so the Wilson signing will unsurprisingly eat into a large portion of that total.

Show all

Headlines

Will Wilson

Navigation

MLBTR INFO

Connect