Report: Chicago Cubs Sign Trevor Williams
Reports came out Saturday evening that the Chicago Cubs have reached an agreement with starting pitcher Trevor Williams, with Evan Altman of Cubs Insider leading the charge. It is a one-year deal and Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports that the deal is believed to be worth about $2.5 million, but the exact figure and structure of the deal are both still unknown at this point.
Williams had spent his entire big league career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, posting a 4.43 ERA (backed by a 4.57 FIP) and 1.337 WHIP over five seasons. His best season to date came back in 2018 when he put up career bests with a 3.31 ERA, 1.178 WHIP, and 7.7 H/9 over 31 starts. That year he also had the eighth-lowest BABIP against (.261) among all qualified pitchers, which indicates that he was not allowing a lot of strong contact against him. Though he did continue to show flashes of that potential in 2019 as well with 12 quality starts in his 26 outings (including a QS in each of his first five starts that year), he has had major struggles with consistency since then.
At his best Williams has been a middle-of-the-rotation candidate, but his overall performance over the last two years puts him more in line for back end work as the Cubs try to figure out how their rotation is exactly going to line up. If the coaching staff is able to figure something out for the 28-year-old right-hander that produces numbers closer to his 2018 campaign, then this can be a significant pickup for the team.
There is a recent trend of pitchers performing better after leaving the Pirates organization (including Gerrit Cole and Tyler Glasnow) and there is a chance — most likely not a Cole or Glasnow chance — that Williams can find some level of improvement with this change of scenery. We will have to wait until the season starts before finding out if any of that comes to fruition, but he is certainly a player to watch for this year.
Stay tuned to Wrigley Rapport here and on social media for future news and notes as we lead up to the 2021 season.
