Chicago Cubs: 3 must-have bullpen arms at trade deadline
Taylor Williams
Cubs fans may be familiar with this final potential trade target, as he spent the first three years of his career pitching in the NL Central.
Taylor Williams pitched in relief for the Milwaukee Brewers from 2017-2019, but was selected on waivers by the Seattle Mariners prior to the 2020 season.
Although he’s only made 12 appearances in the Pacific Northwest, Williams looks like a totally different pitcher now that he’s in Seattle.
During his time with the Brewers, Williams wasn’t impressive. In his 71 games for Milwaukee, he posted a 5.23 ERA and had uninspiring strikeout and walk numbers.
In his short time with the Mariners, Williams’ numbers jump off the page. In 12 innings his ERA is 3.00, his FIP 2.91, and his K-BB% has nearly doubled – his 25.5 percent K-BB% is the 39th best in the majors.
Those drastic improvements may seem suspect due to the small sample size, but digging deeper makes it seem as if Williams may actually be on to something.
In 2020, Williams has significantly changed his approach on the mound. In Milwaukee, he threw his fastball 65.7 percent of the time. That’s now down to 45.2 percent of the time. All of those fastballs that Williams is no longer throwing are now sliders – he’s thrown his breaking ball 54.8 percent of the time in Seattle as compared to just 32.5 percent of the time previously.
It seems that the Mariners saw a pitcher on waivers that they thought could find success with a few changes, and so far that’s paying off.
Williams doesn’t have a long track record of effectiveness at the MLB level, but that does mean the price to land him in a trade would likely be a lower than the two other pitchers mentioned in this article.
The numbers behind Ian Happ's breakout. dark. Next
If the Mariners do believe that they’ve unlocked a new side of Williams, they may be interested in keeping him as he’s still under team control until 2024, but they’re also a team clearly in a rebuild mode. Good MLB ready relievers aren’t pieces that teams that are years away from contention usually keep around.