Guardians Top Pick Williams Off To Stellar Start To His Career
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The Cleveland Guardians selected right-handed pitcher Gavin Williams with their first round pick out of East Carolina University in the 2021 MLB Draft. Williams has lived up to the hype and then some of what a first-round pick brings through his first four career starts in 2022 for High-A Lake County.
The 22-year-old Williams began the season as our 2022 Guardians number seven ranked prospect here at Cleveland Baseball Insider.
Williams is a big young man with an electric arm that can touch triple digits. His fastball sits between 94-97 mph and can maintain that velocity for several innings. He has three other offerings besides his fastball including a curveball, which sits in the upper 70s with outstanding metrics. He also has a slider that shows potential of becoming a plus pitch that he throws in the mid-80s. Williams also throws a mid-80s changeup with fade.
Williams was assigned to start his professional career at High-A Lake County out of minor league spring training and made his first career start April 9th at Lansing.
What a debut it was for Williams as he spun four scoreless no-hit innings allowing two walks and striking out six batters on the day. Hard to begin your career in a more impressive way than that.
Gavin Williams in his second start would make is home debut at Classic Park on April 15th against Dayton.
Williams looked dominate striking out 11 Dragons on the day over just four and two thirds' innings. He did allow three runs on three hits in the game, but the final line was a little deceptive. An error in the second inning by catcher Micael Ramirez on a throw to first base after a strikeout allowed one run to score on what would have been the third out of the inning. The very next batter singled off Williams scoring the second run of the inning before he would get the final out.
Gavin Williams third start would be back on the road facing the Great Lakes Loons on April 23rd.
Williams would make his longest start of the season to date going five innings allowing just one run on two while striking out seven Loons on the day. The lone run Williams gave up came in the first inning after he allowed the first two batters of the game to reach on a double and a walk. The run would eventually come around to score on a double play induced by Williams who would go on to get the final out of the inning on a strikeout to limit the damage. Unfortunately for Williams he would suffer his first loss of his career as the offense would fail to score being shutout in the game losing by a final of 1-to-0.
Williams fourth and latest start came this past Sunday at home vs Lansing. It would be the second time he would face the Lugnuts on the season after he faced them in his pro-debut back on April 9th at Lansing.
Williams would only allow one hit over six scoreless innings while striking out five on the day earning his first career win as a professional as the Captains defeated the Lugnuts by a final of 3-to-0. In two starts vs Lansing he has thrown 10.0 scoreless innings allowing just one hit and three walks while striking out 11 batters.
In a farm system loaded with pitching prospects and known for their pitching development Williams start to his career has him putting up some incredible numbers with the likes of Daniel Espino, Logan T. Allen and other top arms.
Williams currently leads the organization in batting average against as he has only allowed six hits over his 19.2 innings for a ridiculous .095 average. His 29 strikeouts on the year only trail Espino (35) and Allen (30) who are both currently pitching at Double-A Akron.
Lake County is on the road this week at Dayton with Williams next start set for this upcoming Friday May 6th. If he continues to pitch as well as he has you can look for a promotion to Double-A Akron at the latest by mid-season. He could be on a similar path as Guardians 23-year-old left-handed pitching prospect who made just nine starts in 2021 at Lake County before being promoted to Akron.
While it's only four starts into his career it's hard not to see the top of the rotation potential Williams offers. If all continues to go right with his development and he stays injury free it's hard not to imagine we could see Williams up in a Guardians uniform as early as the second half of the 2023 season but more likely sometime in 2024.
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