CHICAGO — A directive to stop pitching left Trevor Williams wondering what's next.
He had just completed his third professional season as a Marlins minor leaguer in 2015 and was pitching in the Arizona Fall League. The then-23-year-old was drafted in the second round two years earlier, yet there was little communication from above, other than he was told to not throw and await further instruction. The Marlins were in the middle of a regime change, having hired Jim Benedict and Marc DelPiano from the Pirates.
Clarity finally came in the form of a phone call on Oct. 24, when he was told he'd been traded to the Pirates for a minor-league pitcher.
"They didn’t tell me a specific name or anything. My thought process was, 'Who did I piss off?'" Williams recalled for DKPittsburghSports.com.
It wasn't until two weeks later that he found out the trade was consummated as compensation for his former team hiring Benedict. While the executive was let go by the Marlins last September, Williams blossomed this summer with a historic second half, capped by five laboring innings in his final start, a 3-0 loss to the Cubs on Thursday night at Wrigley Field.
Williams, now 26, finished with National League-leading 1.38 ERA in the second half this season, the lowest in franchise history. He made 31 starts and finished with the lowest ERA in the rotation (3.11), a remarkable rejuvenation fueled by the fear of being told to stop throwing again.
"The fear is I flourish knowing my life is kind of on the line," Williams said. "My job is on the line. If you have that constant fear that at any moment someone can take your job, take your spot, the game of baseball doesn’t know who’s struggling and who’s not struggling. If someone gets hurt, baseball just moves on. They’ll find another pitcher or player to fill your spot. ... It’s that fear that whenever that window is shut it may never open again."
Williams allowed three earned runs on eight hits with three walks and four strikeouts in front of an announced crowd of 38,415. His season ended with a 14-10 record and his ERA is the 11th-best mark among qualified major league starters. That also included 126 strikeouts to 55 walks in 170 2/3 innings. His ascent is best illustrated by his impeccable second-half numbers and the method in which he helped a struggling team return to playoff contention, albeit for only a few weeks.
His post-All-Star break ERA over the past two seasons ranks second in the majors, trailing only the Indians' Corey Kluber, a two-time Cy Young Award winner. Williams has also pitched in seven of the Pirates' shutouts this season and had not been charged with a loss while allowing more than two runs since July 6 against the Phillies.
He's the only starter in the majors this season to make 11 starts of at least five innings without allowing a run, the only pitcher in franchise history to accomplish that feat since at least 1908. Those remarkable results have come despite his fastball averaging 91 mph. He's survived with pinpoint command and mettle.
"Seeing the guy pitch with 91, 92, that efficient every single time, it seems like it's a replay with a different team," Ivan Nova said. "That shows you how big his heart is, how big the other thing is I’m not going to mention. It’s something you have to learn from."
Williams was drafted in the second round, 44th overall, by the Marlins out of Arizona State in 2013 and reached Double-A one year later. He had a 1.40 WHIP with 101 strikeouts to 43 walks in 131 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in 2015. That following offseason began with his wife giving birth to their son, and he pitched two innings in the Arizona Fall League when he was told to stop throwing.
Williams wondered about the reasoning and figured his offseason would begin earlier than expected. Then the phone call came that changed his career. He was dealt to the Pirates for Richard Mitchell, a 19-year-old who would never throw a pitch for a Marlins minor-league affiliate. In reality, Williams was hand-picked by Neal Huntington's staff.
”Our scouts, as an amateur and again as a professional, identified the intelligence, the drive, the feel for pitching," Huntington recalled. "He could move his fastball around. He could sink it. He could run the four-seamer to the top of the zone. They saw an ability to recognize swings. They saw the belief that he could throw his fastball at any time to any spot."
Williams joined the Pirates' affiliate in the Arizona Fall League, where he worked with the same staff he'd have the following season at Double-A, most notably Justin Meccage, the current interim major league pitching coach for the Pirates. Meccage marveled at Williams' between-start routine and his passion for learning. While other pitchers had premium velocity, Williams had to thrive by enhancing his strengths and hiding his weaknesses.
He made his major league debut in September 2016 and the opening day roster as a reliever last season. Williams was given a spot in the rotation when Jameson Taillon underwent surgery for testicular cancer and made 25 starts. It appeared he could lose that spot in June after posting a 6.28 ERA over six starts.
Instead of wallowing, Williams fixed his delivery and his command returned. He's thrown more four-seam fastballs high in the zone after reaching the majors based on his ability to induce weak contact with his sinker low in the zone. With that formula, Williams studies each opponent to know how to best use those weapons, a vitally important process given his velocity.
"The cool thing about him is he knows his strengths and he uses his strengths to the best of his ability all the time," Meccage said. "His weaknesses he never shows enough to expose them. He does a good job of identifying who in that lineup fit his strengths and who he might have to go off those strengths a little bit."
He wasn't sharp in his finale, though the Cubs were aided by Starling Marte watching a fly ball drop in front of him in the second inning. Williams threw 98 pitches, 62 strikes, and allowed the first five batters to reach in the fourth. Yet, Hurdle beamed when asked afterwards to describe Williams, who was the subject of numerous text messages Hurdle received from scouts across the league this season.
"'The guy's legit,'" Hurdle recalled those admirers saying about Williams. The Pirates fell to 80-78 and will finish the season with a three-game series in Cincinnati beginning Friday. Williams, like Ivan Nova, Joe Musgrove and Chris Archer, will only watch from the dugout as their teammates make a push to finish above .500.
Williams then plans to reflect on his season during the plane ride home to Phoenix. That's when he'll construct a plan to try to continue this run into next season, when the rotation will be the foundation of the roster. He expects other teams to search for his weaknesses before he pitches in a meaningful game again, and he'll use fear to try to find an answer:
"It’s one of those things where I’m going to keep growing, keep working," Williams said. "When I have over 100 starts under my belt, it could be a different conversation we're having. How do I need to adapt?"
1. Cervelli among the best.
Pablo Reyes' improbable rise from overlooked prospect to legitimate big-leaguer added another thrilling chapter Thursday night. The 5-foot-8 utility man started in left field and threw out Wilson Contreras at home plate on a ball hit by Jon Lester to the corner in the fourth inning. An equally impressive play was made at the plate, though.
Francisco Cervelli tracked the ball, caught it off the line and managed to apply a difficult tag to get Contreras:
Cervelli also threw out Ian Happ attempting to steal second base. While the Pirates fell out of the playoff chase the past two months, Cervelli rebounded from post-concussion symptoms to continue performing as well as any catcher in baseball. He's far better defensively than he was a year ago, and received quite the compliment from Hurdle during a brief postgame session with reporters.
"This guy is the best I’ve seen around the plate, and there’s separation. … He’s an infielder at the plate," Hurdle said. "That’s why he makes the picks. He’s got that feel, touch, footwork. Great with the hands and touch with the picks."
2. Another lapse by Marte.
Williams had some bad luck. Contreras hit a one-hopper down the left-field line that turned into a double and an errant throw by Reyes resulted in another double. The worst play of the night occurred in the second inning when Marte watched as a fly ball dropped in front of him at the warning track in right-center for a leadoff single:
Marte seemed to blame Jose Osuna for not going for the ball, when it was clear that Marte intended to go for it. Hurdle couldn't have been pleased. Not after those mental lapses have popped up throughout the season. He then usually delivers an excuse to reporters when asked about those plays. Not this time.
"Miscommunication," Hurdle said. "Lack of communication [from] either one of them. It’s a non-catch, and it’s a ball we need to put away."
That's a veteran outfielder blaming an inexperienced rookie for a call he should have made, an act far more troubling than not calling for the ball. That's not leadership. Marte can be a Gold Glove center fielder. He shows it every game with his ability to chase down balls that few others would reach. However, the Pirates can't afford for such lapses to happen. That single turned into a run four batters later when David Bote hit a two-run triple to the corner in left.
"We missed opportunities and helped them," Hurdle said. "At the end of the day, those are the hard ones when you gift other people at this level. It’s hard enough to win when you’re playing them just one on, but when you’re kind of working on their side as well? Not good."
3. A sign of what's to come.
The Pirates traded away one valuable bench player — David Freese — and are giving a starting job to Adam Frazier. As a result, their bench next season could consist of players such as Osuna, Kevin Kramer, Jordan Luplow and Reyes. That's not wise considering they could be without Gregory Polanco until next June.
Remember how terrible the bench performed in 2017? Hurdle was forced to rely on players such as Phil Gosselin, Gift Ngoepe and Danny Ortiz in pinch-hit situations late in games. Giving starters a night off is also difficult. Hurdle rested Corey Dickerson against Jon Lester on Thursday, forcing him to use Reyes and Osuna in the corner outfield spots.
That didn't go well. The best teams in the National League have a strong bench. Sure, Elias Diaz will be back, but Hurdle can't use the backup catcher as a pinch-hitter, especially with Cervelli's injury history. The Pirates had only four hits, one for extra bases, in the series finale, and went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
They had two on with nobody out in the first and stranded two more in the fourth.