Don’t Overreact To Gavin Williams’ Season Debut, Cleveland Guardians Opinion

Gavin Williams gave up five runs in 4.0 innings in his season debut with the Cleveland Guardians.

Jul 8, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Gavin Williams (63) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports / Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Gavin Williams made his long-awaited season debut on Wednesday evening as the Cleveland Guardians continue to search for more pitching help. The flame-throwing starter hadn’t thrown a pitch this season due to an elbow injury he suffered during spring training. 

Williams’ first big league start of the season was cut short as the Chicago White Sox scored 5.0 earned runs off him in 4.0 innings of work. Williams gave up seven hits in his appearance and gave up eight hard-hit balls. 

However, the advanced stats paint a different picture of his start.

Williams threw his fastball in 59 percent of his pitches, which was clearly his best pitch of the night. Velocity can always be a concern coming off an elbow injury, but it didn’t seem to be an issue for Williams in this start. His fastball had an average velocity of 96.8 mph, maxing out at 98.9 mph in the first inning. 

Despite only striking out two batters, Williams still had seven swings and misses, which was more the White Sox starter Erick Fedde, who finished with a quality start.

Three of those swings and misses from Williams came on the curveball, even though he only threw it 10 times. Willilams is at his best when he's throwing heat and complimenting it with the offspeed. It was great to see the foundation of that in this start.

Before the game, Stephen Vogt didn’t specify if Williams would be on a strict pitch count. “He’s almost full-go,” said Vogt. “We’re expecting him to get deep into the game.” 

Williams threw 74 pitches over his four innings, which is still high volume considering the injury he’s coming off of. 

Jul 8, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Gavin Williams (63) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports / Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

At face value, this start may have looked like it was a disaster and giving up that many runs certainly isn’t ideal. However, we have to remember that Williams faced big league hitters in mid-season form at the start of his first season. 

Williams will be fine after another start or two. The stuff is there and he just needs to get more comfortable, so there's no reason to overreact to this one start.