Kendall Williams A Closer Look

At the trade deadline, the Dodgers sent right-hander Ross Stripling to the Toronto Blue Jays. Certainly, a number of fans, myself included, were sorry to see Ross go. I do think it is a good move for him where  he can be assigned a definite role, most likely a shot at a regular starting  assignment. That certainty should help him out not having to be concerned that each start will be his last. As he approaches free agency, he may well acquire more leverage than he currently has.

In exchange the Dodgers received two players to be named later. Eric Stephen on SBNation postulated that at least one of the PTBNL would come from this list.

• Orelvis Martinez  SS/3B
• Gabriel Moreno C
• Miguel Hiraldo  IF
• CJ Van Eyk RHP
• Eric Pardinho RHP
• Alan Kloffenstein  RHP
• Kendall Williams RHP
• Rekelvin De Castro SS
• Estiven Machado SS
• Otto Lopez  2B/SS

He was correct as Kendall Williams was soon announced as the first of the two to be named later. It seems unlikely another will come from that list as all are on the Blue Jays’ Top-30 list at No. 19 or much  better. Rikelvin De Castro (No.19) and Estiven Machado (No.17) are both international signings and as teenagers have not yet started their professional careers.

The right-handed Williams was selected by the Blue Jays in the second round of the 2019 June Draft with the 52nd pick. He was born in Olive Branch, Mississippi and grew up and attended school in his home town.

His early life presented a challenge as his parents divorced when he was just 12 years old. During the next few years, his relationship with his father grew stronger and stronger. His dad, Brent, worked long hours as the owner of a construction company yet always had time for his son playing countless hours of ball with him. He would play catch, pitch to him, field ground balls and simply fostered a love for the game.

“I look up to him and his opinion holds a lot of weight for me,” Williams told Blue Jays Nation of his father. “I put my head into baseball, and it was a little bit of a safe place for me.”

He played for his high school team in Olive Branch until the end of the semester in his sophomore year in January 2017. At that point he made a big decision. That is, to move to Bradenton, Florida and enroll at IMG Academy which is a noted preparatory boarding school. His move away from his family to further his baseball skills paid off very quickly as Baseball America ranked him the 17th-best prep prospect in the 2019 MLB draft class.

“I told my dad that this is the place I need to go to get me where I want to be,” Williams said. “This gives me the best shot. We made it happen, and I’ve been happy ever since and have made big strides forward.”

On the year as a senior in 2019 Williams posted a 6-0 record along with a 0.91 ERA and 69 strikeouts over 46 innings pitched. He walked 15 and held opponents to a .139 batting average against him.  MaxPreps selected him to its High School Baseball All-American Team as a member of the second team.

Following his graduation Williams had to decide between  joining the elite baseball program at Vanderbilt or begin a professional career if selected in the 2019 draft. Well not quite, although he expected to get drafted it is never a sure thing but he had a strong indication that  the Blue Jays had a definite interest.

The Blue Jay interest was a bit hard to disguise as their Tampa area scout, Brandon Bishoff, was at every single one of his games during his senior year at IMG. Williams and Bishoff developed somewhat of a relationship through their early conversations.

“He always came up and talked to me, and I got a really good vibe from him,” Bishoff said. “He was a player that stayed at the top of my list throughout the year and he was a kid that I really did get to know well.”

On one occasion Williams acknowledged Bishoff in the stands while the 6’6” righty was doing his stretching exercises.  That was unusual and noted by his catcher who was surprised by the gesture. His comment to the scout:

“ He must like you, because he doesn’t talk to anyone on game days!”

He didn’t go into the draft with a specific number in mind he needed to sign and, after a lengthy discussion with his family, decided that if it was only his baseball abilities that needed to be honed, he could do that at the professional level. He did sign on for $1,403,200.

He attributes the move to  IMG Academy and his own hard work for the opportunity he has been given to  pursue a MLB career.

Williams said he “would not go back and change” his decision to attend IMG Academy and believes “ultimately it will pay off,” even though he had to move away from his family.

“It’s surreal,” Williams said. “I never thought I’d be in these shoes as a young kid. Now that I’m here, it’s really bittersweet because I know that I put all this work in throughout my whole life for this one goal.”

He became good friends with fellow right-hander Brennan Malone at IMG and the two fed off each other and pushed each other during their time together at the Academy. Malone was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 32nd overall selection in the 2019 draft.

“I’m actually super excited that I got him down here, and he was on my team,” Williams said. “We got to go through all of this together. We push each other in the weight room, classroom and on the field.”

So what else do we know about Kendall Williams?

We do know he stands 6’6” tall and weighs 205 pounds and he will now become teammates with right-hander 6’6”/200-pound Jimmy Lewis who was selected by the Dodgers  with the 78th overall pick in the same draft. Perhaps one day  Williams and Lewis will be teammates with 6’6”/180-pound  right-hander Dustin May.

This other tidbit is from BLUEJAYS NATION.

We do know, by his own admission, that he is not in awe of analytics and numbers although he understands  their significance.

“I think it’s cool, but I’ll never be one of those people that’ll ride or die by the numbers,” he remarked. “Numbers don’t mean everything, but there’s definitely some importance in having good numbers.”

We also know he had a strong rookie league debut in 2019  with the Gulf Coast League Blue Jays. He pitched to an ERA of 1.13 in 16.0 innings, striking out 19 and walking just seven in five starts. He was not sure where he would be assigned for the 2020 season but was not overly concerned where the assignment might be. With the 2020 season gone belly up Williams now can think about where he might  go to start the 2021 season. I am hoping with the Great Lakes Loons.

“I try to control the controllable,” he said of his 2020 season. “You just have to put your head down, do your stuff, and people will notice. You’ll get moved as soon as you need to get moved.”

What does Andrew Friedman think about his latest acquisition?

“We are definitely getting a guy that we like and feel like will fit in really well with our next crop of prospects that are coming and then another guy that will come from a bigger list that we’ll have some time to work through.”

What do others say?

MLB Pipeline ranked Williams as the 13th-best prospect in the Jays’ farm system, calling him “the quintessential projectable high school right-hander” with “potentially huge upside.” The 6’6″ right-hander has a fastball that is approaching mid-90’s velocity, though his biggest asset could be his overall four-pitch arsenal rather than any one signature offering. 

Baseball America’s scouting report cites Williams’ slider, curveball, and changeup “could all be average or better.”

Jonathan Mayo, who covers the draft and the minors for MLB.com, said on MLB Network’s broadcast last night right after the announcement of Williams’ selection, that the 18-year-old will throw harder once he gets into professional baseball.

The longtime general manager of the Rockies, who now serves as an analyst for MLB Network, Dan O’Dowd, praised the Blue Jays’ second selection:

 “This is a great value pick for where we are in the draft.”

Williams stands out with his size of 6-foot-6, 208-pounds, and has a five-pitch arsenal, something unusual for a prep pitcher. He throws the four-seamer, two-seamer, curveball, changeup, and slider. His fastball sits in the low 90’s while regularly touching 94mph, according to MLB.com’s scouting report.

MLB.com, one year ago, gave the following scouting grades to Williams: Fastball: 55 | Curveball: 55 | Slider: 45 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 50 | Overall: 50. According to MLB.com “Players are graded on a 20-80 scale for future tools — 20-30 is well below average, 40 is below average, 50 is average, 60 is above average and 70-80 is well above average.”

According to MLB.com’s scouting report, Williams’ fastball has creeped up to the mid-90s and he has a 2023 estimated big league arrival: 

“There’s a lot to dream on and potentially huge upside, though he’ll need time to develop and refine his craft in the Minors.”

Perfect Game wrote up an early April, 2019 start at a major tournament, the NHSI in North Carolina:

He worked in a full arsenal of off-speed pitches as well, all of them flashing at least average. The curveball is his preferred breaking ball, thrown in the upper-70s with 12-to-6 to 11-to-5 shape, showing power depth and spin when he’s on top of it. It’s a pitch that could be projected as plus long term. His changeup was actually better than the curveball for a fair amount of his time on the mound, thrown in the 81-84 mph range with outstanding tumbling action and fade to the arm side. He throws the pitch with conviction and trust, and it accounted for a great deal of the swings-and-misses he elicited on this day. There were also flashes of a slider, a pitch he’s been trying to master for a while now and seems to have found a grip that he likes and is comfortable with. It’s not as consistent yet as the rest of the arsenal, but he broke off a couple with sharp tilt and firmer velocity from his curveball.

Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs rated Williams as the 16th-best prospect in the Blue Jays’ system, noting: Williams had some cross-bodied mechanical violence as an amateur that might be ironed out in pro ball, and already may have been. He had a Mike Clevinger look in the bullpen this spring. Whether or not more velo comes, Williams is already a big, strong kid whose fastball has been up to 96, and he creates vertical depth on his breaking ball. There’s sizable relief risk here because of the delivery, but No. 4 starter ceiling if that’s corrected or overcome.

Kiley McDaniel at ESPN wrote of Williams

“He was dealing fastballs up to 96 mph and flashed three average-to-above pitches in high school, but with a delivery that needs some work.”

Keith Law at The Athletic in February said Williams was,

“a projectable right-hander from Florida who is 6-foot-6 and can show both velocity and spin on breaking stuff. But he needs help with consistency in his delivery and also has some physical maturation ahead of him.”

Time is needed to develop and refine his craft with consistency of delivery as he matures.  The Dodgers player development team has gained a bit of reputation for doing just that. It seems that Kendall Williams is on the same page.

“I’m really big on the little things,” Williams cleverly remarked. “The biggest thing we’ve worked on is the smoothness and effectiveness of my delivery without outputting as much work.”

In the following video from his first professional season Williams indicated his mound mentality is that of a bulldog looking to send the hitter back to the dugout in any way he can. Huh!