The Reds may already be out of the race, but their eyes are clearly drifting toward 2027 - and Brandon Williamson still has a lane to matter in that picture if he can clean up one glaring problem.
Williamson belongs in the group of Cincinnati arms worth betting on for the future, even if the shine has worn off a bit. Injuries have chipped away at the raw upside that once made him such an appealing piece, and this season brought another setback when a shoulder injury knocked him out for four months. He finally made it back in early September, but the return has been rough.
In his first two outings since rejoining the Reds, the 28-year-old left-hander has allowed nine runs, six of them earned, over 9⅔ innings. The bigger issue is the same one that followed him earlier in the year: too many walks. Williamson has handed out seven free passes in those innings, and that kind of traffic is a tough way to survive as a starter.
That’s really the heart of the problem. He needs to throw strikes, and he needs to do it now. If the command doesn’t sharpen before the offseason arrives, it becomes hard to see Cincinnati trusting him with a projected spot in the 2027 rotation.
The walks weren’t just a post-injury issue, either. Before he landed on the injured list, Williamson had already walked more batters, 20, than he struck out, 19, while throwing strikes less than 58% of the time. The league average sits around 64-65%, which shows just how far off the mark he was.
Since coming back, the strike rate has climbed to 63%, but the results still haven’t followed. He’s walked multiple batters in seven of his eight appearances this season, including three or more walks in five of those games.
That’s a workable mess for a reliever with a big strikeout weapon. It’s a much tougher sell for a starter, especially one with a career 19% strikeout rate, compared with a league average around 22%.
This was never supposed to be the kind of season Williamson has produced after making the Opening Day roster. Still, there’s enough time left for him to steady things. Early in his big league career, he walked about 8% of the batters he faced over his first two seasons, which is a far more usable number for someone expected to work five-plus innings at a time.
And the path back into the Reds’ plans is there. Hunter Greene is set to miss all of 2027 after Tommy John surgery, and Brady Singer is nearing free agency, so at least one rotation spot should open up in Cincinnati soon.
Williamson ought to be in position to grab it. First, though, he has to show he can keep runners off the bases.
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