Cubs: Trevor Williams can no longer be trusted in the starting rotation

Cubs: Trevor Williams is holding down the rest of the rotation

Williams has not been able to put up consistently solid performances or eat enough innings to be considered a net positive for the Cubs. While he does have a career-best strikeout rate so far this season, he also has a career-worst walk rate and strikeout-to-walk ratio. All of this has led to Williams being very inefficient with his pitches and being pulled from games far too early, leaving the bullpen in a tough spot consistently.

While May has been a turn-of-fortunes for many players on the team, the same can’t be said for Trevor Williams. Through four starts so far this month, William’s longest outing has been just 4 2/3 innings. He is averaging just 3 1/3 innings pitched per start this month which is quite frankly unacceptable for a team that is now in the midst of its possible last year of contention.

Williams hasn’t been keeping runs off the board in his short stints either as he sports an ERA of 8.78 in the month of May and 5.97 on the season. He also doesn’t have much of anything to hang his hat on as he has been below average in every single possible category according to his Baseball Savant numbers. All of this begs the question: what can the Cubs possibly do to fix the situation?

Cubs can’t keep wasting starts on Trevor Williams

With the Cubs being in a highly competitive division race, they simply cannot afford to have Williams bogging them down like he is now. The team needs to figure out a way to get some kind of value out of him or cut their losses. While DFAing him may be the most simple and practical solution, the front office may be wise to move Williams to the bullpen.

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While Williams’ pitch inefficiency is something that can’t be afforded while in the rotation, it may be something that works for him out of the bullpen. He has been able to put together a solid season in terms of strikeouts, and that’s something that may be an asset to the Cubs if they tried to make him a one-inning reliever where he won’t have to worry about his pitch count and he can simply focus on getting out whoever he’s facing.

The drawback to this, however, is that Williams likely doesn’t have the stuff to be a valuable reliever. While he has been getting strikeouts, that’s something most of the Cubs relievers have done well, and bullpen depth simply isn’t something the Cubs are lacking at the moment.

With this in mind, a DFA for Williams is what makes the most sense for the Cubs if he doesn’t figure it out in the rotation. Williams has simply not been what everyone hoped he could be this year, and it’s beginning to really become an issue for the club.

The veteran should have a very short leash as far as his performances go from now on as he could potentially cost the Cubs too many games down the stretch if he doesn’t get any better. With guys like Keegan Thompson and Alec Mills already in the majors, or even guys like Shelby Miller or Kohl Stewart down in Iowa, the Cubs should have no shortage of options to replace Williams in the rotation should they decide to move on from the struggling starter.