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If Gavin Williams returns to what he looked like at the end of the 2023 season, the Cleveland Guardians could have a serious one-two punch at the top of their rotation on Opening Day.
While the first official game of the regular season is still over a month away, Williams has shown great promise so far in training camp.
The most recent positive sign was his essentially perfect spring training debut on Wednesday afternoon.
Williams made his first start of the Cactus League and saw six of the Texas Rangers hitters and sent all of them down in 34 pitches.
The most exciting part of this appearance wasn't just that Williams was getting outs but how he was doing so.
Three of the six batters he faced in the 2.0 innings were strikeout victims, and Williams's pitch mix looked sharp, too. His fastball velocity had an average of 97.0 mph and maxed out at 98.2. Plus, his slider generated three whiffs in just eight pitches.
It was hard to ignore just how good the former first-round pick looked, and Stephen Vogt was especially excited about the heater.
"I thought Gavin looked really sharp. The velocity, obviously, is there, but the movement looked like what it used to. So, it looked like it had some good vertical movement to it," said Cleveland's skipper after the game.
Between the shape of Williams' pitches, the outs he was able to generate, and the overall effectiveness on the mound, this was a perfect opening outing for the starter.
Williams even said himself after the game that throwing his fastball "felt like it was very easy. Felt like I could get it a little bit higher, but I think I'm in a good spot right now."
However, from here, it's all about building on this so Williams can be a key contributor to Cleveland's rotation for the entire season.
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