Under The Knife 8/8/25

Let Them Show Us

Gavin Williams was in the ninth and there were two storylines - could he get the no hitter, facing Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso, and how many pitches would the Guardians let him go? The answer was no and more than they liked. Williams came out after 125 pitches, noted by both sets of announcers and I’m sure the radio and Spanish crews, as the high point of pitch counts for the season.

Williams is age-26, in his third major league season, and listed as 6’6, 250. I’ve stood next to him and he seems ever bit of that. He’s never been called “slight” or “fragile” in his life. He did miss half of last year with an elbow issue, so there’s not zero history, but his file, if not digital, would be very thin. I’m told he has a pretty normal warm up and cool down routines and nothing outrageous in between. He’s from Cape Fear, North Carolina, so there’s some Robert Mitchum line I want to run here, but I looked it up and Mitchum was 6-foot, 175, knuckle tattoos or not.

So here’s my question - if Williams can go out and go 125 pitches, recovers well, maybe gets a little extra rest because we know even near no-nos can be stressful, and he goes on pitching well, do we not acknowledge that Williams can go 125? Does the ability to do it once not indicate that his other starts might be low? Admittedly, Cleveland has taken him over 100 four times now and most of his starts are in the 90s, but maybe we’re losing an inning of Williams every time out. Is the pen - especially this newly constructed one - actually better in the sixth or seventh than Wiliams? I acknowledge third time around, but I also think we’re not counting how bullpens are seen and managed in the modern game inside the third time orthodoxy.

If we’re not going to build up players progressively, maybe they’ll give us signs anyway. Williams just did so and I’m hoping we see more good pitchers do the same. Baseball’s better with a little drama and the occasional complete game. Let’s get to the injuries:

AARON JUDGE, OF/DH NYY (strained forearm)

Through a couple games, Aaron Judge has a single. That’s not the only data point that the Yankees have; they’ve got hundreds of swings off live pitching and the Trajekt, plus their hands on Judge to some extent. From outside, we simply can’t tell, though sources tell me much the same things that the team is saying publicly. Power? That’s just a promise right now, though the team will have data.

There’s also statements saying that Judge will be back in the outfield, but this is much more of an experiment. While the team has had Judge throwing, that’s a much more controlled situation. If you think about what an outfielder actually does, it’s a lot of up and down, warm up throws, batting, and then once a game, they have to really cork one throw off, usually after they’ve been standing a bit. (Is the warm up they do between innings enough? I’ve never seen that studied.)

The easy thing would be to tell Judge don’t make the hard throw, or to “long cut” him the way that was done with Albert Pujols (or any player with a weak arm.) It’s hard to tell a player, especially a leader, not to play at his hardest or to give up a play he could normally make. We’ll see how it goes and whether Judge will need the occasional DH slot to keep his forearm healthy enough to hit.

ZACK WHEELER, SP PHI (inflamed shoulder)

Zack Wheeler has been the unquestioned ace of a very solid Phillies rotation this year, so when Rob Thomson said that Wheeler was dealing with a sore shoulder, you could feel that pain transferring to all the Phillies fans seeing another reason their team could fall short again. Instead, this is minor for now, but a warning sign not just to the Phils rotation, but to every hopeful team out there about workload levels, seasonal fatigue, and the necessary planning for October.

Every team goes into the season at least thinking about October, even if about half know they won’t make it. There’s enough surprises that the planning is almost always there, figuring out how to manage workloads, who would be overextended, and figuring out ways to stretch someone like Jacob Misiorowski or Max Scherzer from either spectrum into a potential extra month. The same is true for the Phillies so with only one major injury - full credit to their staff - they’ve now got plenty of depth, but the playoffs are more about quality.

Wheeler’s shoulder got some extra treatment and a couple extra days of “rest.” His pitching schedule was adjusted, moving his start from Friday to Sunday and giving him what one source called a “stutter” in his between-start routine, basically repeating his post-start days twice (ie, Day 1, Day 1a, Day 2, Day 2a). The assumption is that he’ll make it through his throw day on Friday and move forward to the Sunday start with just a little extra treatment.

There’s two more notes on the Phillies, plus more on Braves pitching, Royals hopes, and much more behind the wall.