A rollercoaster of a ride describes Trevor Williams Major League Baseball career. Trips up and down from the minors to the majors and lots of relocations to keep his dream of having a long lasting career as a Major League pitcher possible. But he might be in prime position to have his best season yet in 2024 for the Washington Nationals.
Williams, a Major League vet, was drafted in the second round of the 2013 MLB Draft by the Miami Marlins. However, he never played a game in a Marlins uniform in the Majors after being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2015 offseason, where he made his MLB debut less than a year later in September of 2016. He had his ups and downs with the franchise, with a career 5.312 ERA over 532.8 innings pitched over the course of his tenure from 2016-2020. After hopping around with a few teams, he signed a two-year, $13M deal with the Nationals in December of 2022.
He didn’t have the performance he hoped for last season in the first year of his contract, putting up a 5.55 ERA with 53 walks and only 111 Ks. He really struggled on the bump after the All Star Break, which led to him an NL most 34 home runs allowed across his 30 starts.
But he is hoping this season will be different and so far, the Nationals couldn’t ask for much more from the righty veteran. In his first two starts, Williams is 2-0, only allowing six hits (none of them home runs) across 10 ⅓ innings pitched, striking out seven. His ERA, 2.61, is almost 2.00 lower than any other Nationals starter so far this season.
While it is only a very small sample size, it looks like Williams is on the right track to helping both himself and the Nationals have a bounce back season in 2024. The Nationals will need him to step up even more now since their 2024 Opening Day starter, Josiah Gray, has been placed on the 15-day injured list.
If he can sustain this consistency across 20+ starts, he might have a chance to ink himself another contract as Washington is working on finishing their rebuild to get back to the playoffs for the first time since they won the World Series in 2019.
