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USATSI

The latest big-name prospect is getting the call, with the Guardians set to add pitcher Gavin Williams to the roster to start Wednesday against the Athletics. Is this a prospect Fantasy Baseball players need to be running out to add? There's certainly quite a bit to get excited about, even among a class of rookie pitchers that have given us plenty to be excited about. 

Williams gets the call as one of the top prospects in the Guardians system and one of the top pitchers remaining in the minors. He carved up Double-A in a brief stint to open the season and then continued to pitch very well upon his promotion to Triple-A, where he has a 2.93 ERA and 61 strikeouts over 46 innings of work in his nine starts. Among pitchers with at least 40 innings, Williams' 33.3% strikeout rate leads the International League, though his 11.5% walk rate is also the 19th-highest among 64 pitchers, which is a concern. 

The former No. 23 overall pick from the 2021 draft has managed to stay healthy since turning pro, something that was a struggle for him in college. He made 25 starts last season and has made 12 so far, though scouts still wonder whether he'll be able to hold up as a starter with a violent delivery that has led to injuries in the past. 

But that's a concern for the long run because Williams is healthy right now. And he comes to the majors armed with a fastball as his primary weapon, a mid-90s heater he can throw for whiffs up in the zone. As we've seen with someone like Bryce Miller, that alone can carry you pretty far, though it's not clear if Williams' pitch is quite as dominant as Miller's – FanGraphs gave the fastball a 60 grade on the 20-80 scale, while BaseballProspectus called it a "70-grade fastball" before the season. It shouldn't surprise you, then, to learn that Baseball Prospectus tends to be higher on Williams than FanGraphs, as he ranked 26th in their preseason rankings, compared to just 81st at FanGraphs. 

The fastball will likely be the key to how high Williams' floor can be. He's thrown his four-seamer 62% of the time in Triple-A, and it's been an excellent pitch for him, with a very strong 31.7% whiff rate and 33.2% CSW%; however, as with many up-in-the-zone fastballs, he has had a tendency to get hit pretty hard (92.6 mph average exit velocity), and in the air (33.3% groundball rate), when he isn't getting whiffs, which could be an issue if his control issues follow him to the majors.

While the fastball is certainly the centerpiece, Williams comes to the table with a four-pitch mix. He's thrown his slider 21% of the time and his curveball 13% of the time; his changeup so far has been more of a show-me pitch, at a 5% usage. The curveball looks like the pitch he goes to for whiffs out of the strike zone, while the slider might be the pitch he goes to for weak contact – it's the only one of Williams' pitches with a groundball rate over 50%. That the slider also has a decent 29% whiff rate despite being thrown in the strike zone 56% of the time suggests it can be an effective chase pitch if he utilizes it that way, too. 

Between the walks and the fly-ball lean, there are some red flags in Williams' Triple-A profile, to be sure. But there's also clear upside here with three potential swing-and-miss pitches and a boatload of strikeouts – not to mention an organization that has a well-earned reputation for getting the most out of their pitchers. 

Williams could go the way of Gavin Stone or Matthew Liberatore, two other hyped young pitchers who flopped upon getting the call to the majors this season. But he's worth adding in pretty much all formats just in case he does hit the ground running, as Bryce Miller, Bobby Miller, and Eury Perez have done. It's not the likeliest outcome, but it's well within the realm of possibilities.