GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2014 Manager Stephen Vogt says he\u2019s never before seen this version of Gavin Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the three years I\u2019ve known Gavin, I\u2019ve never seen him more focused or determined,\u201d said Vogt. \u201cHe wants to be one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet there is still a streak of mischief in the 6-6, 250-pound Williams.<\/p>\n
Last season, he made a habit of walking past clubhouse visitors, including reporters, and tapping them on their far shoulder. When they turned to see who it was, Williams had disappeared around the other shoulder.<\/p>\n
It was a small thing, but he enjoyed it immensely.<\/p>\n
After Wednesday\u2019s full squad workout on a windy day in the desert, Williams scanned the locker room, deciding who would be his first victim of the year.<\/p>\n
Some things never change; they just get better.<\/p>\n
The Guardians believe that could be the case with Williams, their No.1 pick in 2021.<\/p>\n
Williams went 12-5 with a 3.06 ERA in 31 starts last season. It was a season that announced his arrival in the big leagues as he pitched 167 2\/3 innings with 173 strikeouts and an MLB-leading 83 walks.<\/p>\n
Those were all career highs following a 2024 season in which he opened the year on the injured list and never made up for the lost time.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast season helped me a lot,\u201d said Williams. \u201cI know 2024 wasn\u2019t the best season, so I went into 2025 with some goals. I wanted to pitch between 150 and 170 innings, and I reached that counting the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helped me to know that I had the stuff to play here. That I could add pitches throughout the season that would help my arsenal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams became a big part of a starting rotation that led the AL with 888 innings pitched. In 2024, the Guardians\u2019 bullpen carried an injured rotation. The rotation repaid the favor in 2025.<\/p>\n
When the Guardians lost closer Emmanuel Clase to a gambling scandal in July, they had to move set-up man Cade Smith to the ninth inning. That pushed the other relievers to later innings, which left Vogt with a one inning to fill.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to find someone to pitch the sixth inning,\u201d said Vogt.<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t find one pitcher, they found five \u2014 the entire starting rotation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a special group of guys,\u201d said Williams. \u201cFrom Tanner Bibee to Parker Messick to Joey Cantillo, LA (Logan Allen), Slade Cecconi and myself. I think we proved what we could do last year, especially in the second half, and it\u2019s only going to get better this year for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams was 5-4 with a 3.90 ERA in 17 starts at the All-Star break. In the second half, he went 7-1 with a 2.18 ERA in 12 starts. That included carrying a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the Mets on Aug. 6 before losing it to Juan Soto\u2019s one-out homer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last three months I don\u2019t think we could have drawn up a better stretch than what Gavin did for us,\u201d said Vogt. <\/p>\n
Williams worked two new pitches, a cut fastball and sinker, into his attack plan and unleashed them in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sinker opened a hole in the strike zone for my fastball,\u201d said Williams. \u201cJust knowing that the hitters had something else to worry about, allowed me to sneak a sinker in there at any time. It was a big help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams, despite his 83 walks, held the opposition to a .211 batting average. He was even more effective in the clutch, where the opposition hit .158 (21 for 133) with runners in scoring position. It was the lowest batting average allowed by a Cleveland pitcher since the data became available in 1974.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t do anything different,\u201d said Williams, concerning his dominance with runners in scoring position. \u201cI think it was just the nature of the game, and being able to throw in a sinker to get a ground ball and turn a double play every once in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams, 26, has already made two postseason starts in just two-plus seasons in the big leagues. He was knocked around by the Yankees in the ALCS in 2024 but went pitch for pitch with Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal in Game 1 of last year\u2019s wild card series against Detroit. Williams lost, 2-1, despite not allowing an earned run in six innings because the Tigers\u2019 two runs came on Cleveland errors. <\/p>\n
\u201cPitching in the postseason gives you confidence going into the next season,\u201d said Williams. \u201cWe want to go all the way. We want to win the World Series, and that\u2019s everybody\u2019s goal as a starting pitcher.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2014 Manager Stephen Vogt says he\u2019s never before seen this version of Gavin Williams. \u201cIn the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-489785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}