Before the 2025 season started, Gavin Williams still hadn’t made more than 16 starts in a year after making his MLB debut in 2023.

He pitched in his first big-league game in June 2023 and was shut down at the end of his rookie season. Williams then missed the first half of the 2024 campaign due to an elbow injury.

The potential for Williams to be an ace of a staff was still there, but he was never able to find consistency on the mound at the big league level. 

Even though Williams began last season as a similar version of himself as he was the previous two years, the 26-year-old saw tremendous growth as the season progressed. 

By the time Williams took the mound in Game 1 of the ALWS, he was a completely different pitcher than he was in March. No player on Cleveland’s roster took a bigger jump in 2025 than Williams did.

Heading into the All-Star Break, Williams led all MLB starting pitchers (min. 50 IP) with 57 walks through the first half of the season. That one stat perfectly summed up the type of pitcher Williams was through the middle of July. 

Through Williams’ first 19 starts, he had a 3.70 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP. These certainly weren’t bad numbers, but they were what he or the Guardians expected when the organization selected Williams in the first round of the 2021 draft.

Then, something clicked for Williams during the second half of the season, and the right-hander finally looked like the top prospect he was in Cleveland’s farm system for some many years. Not only did the 26-year-old establish himself as the Guardians’ ace, but he also looked like one of the best pitchers in MLB during the home stretch.

During the final two months of the regular season, Williams made 12 starts and registered a 2.18 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. The right-hander showed much better command of his pitches over this stretch, with his strikeout sitting at 27.6 percent after the All-Star Break.

Plus, who can forget the near no-hitter Williams had against the New York Mets, before Juan Soto spoiled his historic performance with a solo home run with two outs left in the ninth inning. 

Looking at where Williams was as a pitcher at the beginning of the season to the end of the year just shows the growth and the jump he made as a promising young pitcher, to establishing himself as one og the top arms in the American League.