Blossoming Guardians starter learning pitch that helped unlock Gavin Williams

Last season Gavin Wiliams authored an incredible breakout season in the middle of the Guardians’ starting rotation. While he had shown flashes in the first two seasons of his career, Williams’ 2025 season was the stuff of legend.

His 3.05 ERA was pristine. HIs strikeout rate of 24.6% was above-average And, perhaps most importantly, he recorded a career-high 167 2/3 innings.

After two seasons of starts and stops, Williams turned into a front-of-rotation ace behind Tanner Bibee. And a big reason for that extreme breakout was thanks to a cutter that helped raise his arsenal to another level. 

And, based on some reporting from Guardians’ spring training in Arizona, it looks like Guardians starter Parker Messick could be a prime beneficiary from the addition of a cutter in 2026. 

Guardians starter Parker Messick could be even better in 2026 

In a new episode of the Cleveland Baseball Talk podcast, Cleveland.com beat reporters Joe Noga and Paul Hoynes discussed that very topic. Messick had previously brought up in a media session that he had spent the offseason tinkering with a cutter. 

And, as Noga said, a cutter can be a double-edged sword. 

While Williams stands out as a cutter success story, there are plenty of instances of pitchers struggling with their cutter: the prime example of which being former Guardians starter Aaron Civale, who relied too heavily on his cutter despite not being able to get consistent results with it. 

Williams threw his cutter 14% of the time last season and held batters to a .233 average with just five home runs allowed.

One of the things that made it such a weapon was his ability to use it against both righties and lefties compared to his fastball and curveball (which skewed more toward lefties) and his sweeper (which he almost primarily threw to lefties). 

Last season Messick posted a stellar 2.72 ERA in 39 2/3 innings after being called up in August and seems to have the inside lane for one of the spots in the Guardians’ starting rotation. 

He also is pretty much the exact opposite of Williams, who stands at 6-foot-6 and has a 96 mile per hour fastball that explodes out of his right hand. Meanwhile, Messick is a 6-foot left-hander who has a much more crafty arsenal and a fastball that barely cracks 93 miles per hour. 

And while hitters hit better than .300 off Messick’s fastball and changeup last season, he allowed just four hits on his slider and one on his curveball, so it’s clear that his secondary stuff has life. 

Adding a cutter to that mix would give him another hitter with some horizontal movement that could clip the strike zone against hitters of all handiness. 

The Guardians’ rotation is going to need to be at its best for the team to repeat as American League Central champions, and Messick’s cutter could end up playing a big part in that.