MLB · P · Cleveland Guardians
Gavin Williams
B/T L/R · 6' 6" · 250 lb · born Fayetteville, NC, USA · age 27 · draft 2021 rd 1 · played P 32 · MLB debut 2023-06-21
746 batters faced scored this season His season card →
A moment
Gavin Williams' immaculate inning — Gavin Williams struck out the side on nine pitches. Only two of them were in the strike zone. Read it →
On the record · career milestone this season
500 career strikeouts — Tue, Jul 28 · night game vs. Cincinnati Reds The scorecard → · The write-up →
The card rack
Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
FlagshipGavin Williams [Gold] #254 · 2026 Topps · 68 recent sales 7N ▲0%
Live on eBay now · asking, not sold · as of 2026-10-12 · paid links
The rookieGavin Williams #RC-GW · 2024 Topps Holiday Relic · 35 recent sales 7N ▲1.6%
Live on eBay now · asking, not sold · as of 2026-10-12 · paid links
Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases. · Flagship = his most-traded card (the market’s reference); the rookie = the top card of his first card year. As of October 12, 2026 · trend is FVR's own nightly archive · prices via SportsCardsPro · what these terms mean
Scout’s note
Williams, 27, from Fayetteville, North Carolina, was a 2021 first-rounder who debuted two years later and has 581 strikeouts in just 95 MLB games. This season for Cleveland: 248 strikeouts — second in baseball — and a 3.76 ERA over 184.1 innings. He's Index-ungraded by design: the stuff model is stability-tested but not outcome-validated, so no arm earns a board flag from it. The ERA-FIP luck gap cleared the bar, and regression calls come by hand. The page is here because a 27-year-old with 581 Ks in 95 games matters; the grade waits for the science.
Note written · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)
We wrote about Williams here — The Overnight: 5.2 IP, 0 ER, 12 K, 2 BB (October 10, 2026) · The Buzz October 10, 2026 · September 2, 2026 · The Overnight: 500 career strikeouts (July 28, 2026) · and 2 more
Current signals
The read: Williams is in the Index ungraded, on purpose: our stuff model is stability-tested but not outcome-validated, so no big-league arm gets a board flag from it — not even one of the best seasons in the sport. (Calls are another matter: the ERA-FIP luck gap did clear the bar, and we file arm regression calls by hand from it.) The page is here because the player matters; the board grade waits for the science.
What he’s paid
ArbitrationA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of .
- 2026 salary
- $4.10M
- Tax hit
- $4.10M
- Service time
- 3 yr 103 d
- Options left
- 3 / 3
The deal A1
On the sheet: A1
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | Free agent |
| Tax hit | — | — | — |
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Cleveland Guardians.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $0.82M
- Guaranteed
- $0.82M
- Term
- 1 yr
- His class
- Pre-Arb
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salary | Minimum | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
Two sources, read a month apart, put this guarantee at the same dollar. That is the check, and it passed.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
The Wire
▲ On the field: Gavin Williams reached 10th and 11th strikeouts through 5 innings.
X chatter, trailing 2 days · as of 2026-10-12 · newest post 2026-10-11 · summarized by Grok (xAI) · how this works →
Collect Gavin Williams
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Gavin Williams cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.
The Bureau on Gavin Williams
The scouting press, in their own words
FINAL: Guardians 2, White Sox 0 Cleveland comes back from a 2-0 series deficit and heads to the ALCS to face Tampa Bay by striking out 21 White Sox, a playoff record. Gavin Williams was incredible. José Ramírez’s two-run homer was the offense. The ALCS begins Monday at the Trop.
What an outing from Gavin Williams tonight! 5.2 IP H 0 ER 2 BB 12 K 22 Whiffs #GuardsBall https://t.co/Wu1T9Gj3id
I know there are fans who want to see SPs go 9 innings regularly again. With hitters as dangerous as they are today, that's going to be tough. Gavin Williams was awesome tonight. But: First 2 times through lineup: 0 hits, 1 HBP, 1 BB 3rd time through: 1 out, 1 single, 1 walk.
Umpire favor
+2.1 net runs over 33 graded games — the zone was kind to the umpire on balance.
The postseason
Gavin Williams’s playoff games, each on its reconciled card. Kept apart from the season line below — none of it is counted in a season number on this page.
- AL Division Series, Game 5 · CLE vs. CWS · 5.2 IP, 12 K, 0 ER
- AL Division Series, Game 4 · CLE vs. CWS · 1.0 IP, 1 K, 0 ER
- AL Division Series, Game 2 · CLE vs. CWS · 5.0 IP, 11 K, 2 ER
The line
| Year | Team | Lvl | G | IP | W–L | SV | ERA | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Cleveland Guardians | MLB | 16 | 82.0 | 3–5 | 0 | 3.29 | 81 | 1.26 |
| 2024 | Cleveland Guardians | MLB | 16 | 76.0 | 3–10 | 0 | 4.86 | 79 | 1.37 |
| 2025 | Cleveland Guardians | MLB | 31 | 167.2 | 12–5 | 0 | 3.06 | 173 | 1.27 |
| 2026 | Cleveland Guardians | MLB | 32 | 184.1 | 14–8 | 0 | 3.76 | 248 | 1.11 |
| MLB CAREER | 95 | 510.0 | 32–28 | 0 | 3.62 | 581 | 1.23 | ||
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →





