Trevor Williams is getting another shot at October.
The 34-year-old right-hander, released by the Washington Nationals in late August, landed a major-league deal with the Texas Rangers just in time for the final month of the season. Because the agreement came together on the last day of August, Williams is eligible for the postseason - a significant bonus for him and for Texas.
Williams spent more than a year working back from UCL surgery before returning to Washington in a bullpen role. He gave the Nationals solid work as a multi-inning reliever, posting a 2.65 ERA over 17 innings while striking out nearly a dozen batters per nine. The Rangers are hoping that version of Williams shows up in Texas after a rough first outing Tuesday, when he gave up three earned runs in 1 1/3 innings against the Athletics.
For Cubs fans, though, Williams carries a different kind of significance. His name is tied to the trade that helped bring Pete Crow-Armstrong to Chicago.
That 2021 deadline deal is usually remembered for the headliners: Javier Baez heading out, Crow-Armstrong coming back. It was one of the defining moves of Jed Hoyer’s early stretch after taking over from Theo Epstein, alongside the departures of Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo as the Cubs reshaped the roster.
Williams was part of that same trade package to the Mets, and he actually pitched better in Queens than he did in Chicago. He handled a little bit of everything for New York, appearing in 30 games with nine starts and five finishes. The former second-round pick put up a 3.21 ERA over the stretch, then turned that performance into a two-year deal with the Nationals.
So while Baez is the obvious name attached to the Pete Crow-Armstrong trade, Williams is one of those smaller links that baseball leaves behind as the years pass. Now he’s trying to help the Rangers into the playoffs and chase the first postseason appearance of his 11-year MLB career, while Crow-Armstrong pushes for MVP hardware and a deep October run with the Cubs.
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For Chicago, the comparison only gets more interesting because the player who replaced Bregman in Boston has settled in as more of an average regular than a difference-maker. Caleb Durbins numbers have been respectable, but not the sort that scream impact, which is exactly why Bregmans late-season spike keeps mattering for teams watching from the outside and weighing how much offense they need to add. [Read more 🡒]