Gavin Williams - 4/25/23

Prospect spotlight on one of the hotter pitching prospects in the minors

Gavin Williams RHP – Age: 23 – B/T: R/R, 6’6’’ 250 – Guardians (Double-A)

• Born: 7/26/1999 (Fayetteville, NC)

• Draft: 2021, Cleveland Guardians, 1^st Round

• School: East Carolina University

Gavin Williams has spent the last two seasons dominating minor league hitters and is looking like the next Cleveland pitching success story. A first-round pick out of East Carolina in 2021, Williams has battled arm injuries dating back to his high school days, where he was drafted in the 30th round by the Tampa Bay Rays. While having a strong junior season, there were ten other pitchers selected before him, and with the exception of maybe Andrew Painter, Williams is trending to be the best of the bunch. Let’s take a look at what he does so well and how quickly we should expect to see him in the majors.

Looking at Williams’ repertoire, he has a pitch mix of a mid-90’s fastball to go along with two breaking balls. Williams is extremely fastball heavy — in his 16 starts at Double-A, he threw his heater 58% of the time, generating a 32% whiff rate and a 33% chase rate. The whiff rate on the fastball was reassuring to see as he throws from a more downhill angle and doesn’t have the carry profile that other power pitchers have. Still, this is a plus-pitch that is thrown with premium velocity and will get whiffs up in the zone.