This weekly waiver-wire watch column is designed to help you monitor and pick up players in the coming weeks. These are the players you’ll want to add now before becoming the hot waiver commodity in a week or two. Using underlying and advanced metrics, this “watchlist” will help you get ahead of the competition in your league and reap the rewards from your pickups later.
The players could be anyone from a prospect in an ideal situation close to the Majors, a reliever in a saves+holds league or even a starter doing well with misleading surface-level stats like ERA. They might even be hitters with quality underlying stats. Or they could be none of those types of players and entirely different.
The point is that they’ll help you find success in your fantasy league while staying ahead of the curve against your leaguemates.
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Gavin Williams is much more of a long-term play, both for this season and moving forward. The right-hander has been absolutely dominant in the Minors this year.
He struck out 20 while scattering six hits, three walks and an earned run in 14.1 Double-A innings – over the course of three starts – to begin the year before a promotion to Triple-A. With Cleveland’s Triple-A club in Columbus, Williams has pitched to a 2.25 ERA and a 3.33 FIP in 32 innings while striking out 11.81 batters per nine frames and surrendering just 3.36 walks and 0.84 home runs per nine innings.
There’s significant fantasy upside here with Williams, who ranked sixth on FanGraphs’ list of the top 50 Guardians prospects earlier this year.
FanGraphs‘ Eric Longenhagen noted Williams’ injury history while writing the following about the starter in a write-up on the organization’s top 50 prospects on Jan. 23:
“His slider execution is especially consistent, though his curveball has the more visually pleasing movement. Increased changeup emphasis, which was already evident during Williams’ first instructs, has occurred in pro ball, and while Williiams’ meal ticket is his mid-90s fastball, which he rips past hitters a the letters, he has three viable weapons right now and might have a fourth as his changeup develops. It’s a mid-rotation starter’s stuff, and healthy Williams should produce at the Big League level…”
The only real question with Williams is when he’ll get his shot to join fellow prospects Logan Allen and Tanner Bibee in what’s set to become an increasingly crowded Major League rotation.
Including Allen, Bibee and staff ace Shane Bieber, the American League Central club has used eight different starters this year. That list doesn’t include Triston McKenzie, who has been on the injured list all year due to a teres major strain. The team has also gotten just two starts from Aaron Civale so far due to the right-hander missing time due to an oblique strain.
The team also has Cal Quantrill, Hunter Gaddis, Peyton Battenfield and Zach Plesac on hand, though all have struggled at times this season. All four have thrown at least 21 innings for Cleveland, and all four have a FIP above the 4.50 mark.
Though with both McKenzie and Civale in the process of making rehab starts, it seems Williams’ Major League debut might come later rather than sooner this season, although that’s purely speculative.
Still, he’s very much worth an add for fantasy managers right now. Given the success of young pitching prospects making instant impacts in the Majors, like Allen, Bibee, Bryce Miller, Mason Miller, Taj Bradley and others, it’s possible, or more likely probable, that Williams will draw significant attention on waivers whenever he gets set to join the Major League rotation.
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