Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Gavin Williams has seemingly reinvented himself once again, and more

Why you should still like Jake Burger following his return from Triple-A

If you've been a baseball fan for long enough, and especially if you're the specific type of baseball fan who subscribes to a daily Fantasy Baseball newsletter, you've surely heard the term "there's no such thing as a pitching prospect." 

TNSTAAPP.

It's a joke, but it's also not. Pitching prospects are ephemeral beings, prone to injury and performance fluctuations that make ranking them a foolhardy exercise in the best of times. But here's the thing: It's also true for all pitchers, not just prospects. 

Take Gavin Williams. In the span of about three years, he's gone from being one of the most hyped pitching prospects in baseball to an intriguing-but-frustrating rookie, then pivoted to being a just-frustrating sophomore, and now he might have come back full circle. In fact, if you zoom out just to this year, he's gone from largely an afterthought in Fantasy circles at the start of Spring Training to one of the most-hyped young pitchers in the game once again during the spring, only to totally peter out in April, putting up a 5.14 ERA in the first month of the season and likely earning a tip back to the waiver wire in most leagues.

And now? Now, I think he's back to being an incredibly intriguing pitcher again. And he's done it by completely reinventing himself yet again.

In his first three starts of the season, Williams regressed, going back to being a three-pitch pitcher after expanding his arsenal in 2024 while dealing with an elbow injury. He started working his cutter back into his arsenal starting in his fifth start of the season, and on Wednesday against the Twins, he showed his deepest arsenal yet, reintroducing his changeup to give him a full five-pitch mix. The fastball is still the star when things are going well – he threw it 52% of the time Wednesday and generated 10 of his 13 swinging strikes with it – but the cutter got its most extensive look of the season, as he threw 19 of them, generating a bunch of weak contact, if not many whiffs. 

Because Williams' fastball can be so good, it's fine if the rest of his arsenal isn't generating whiffs. He can pitch backwards if he needs to, using the fastball as a putaway pitch while stealing the occasional strike with his curveball and changeup to keep opposing hitters honest. You'd like to see more from the sweeper – just one whiff – than we got Wednesday, but that's been a good enough pitch this season that I don't have too much concern about it. 

Williams is a good example of how pitchers can morph over the course of the season, especially when they are struggling. Stubborn pitchers might bang their head against the wall and try to brute-force their way to success, but Williams has shown admiral adaptability in his career, trying different approaches until he figures out what works. There's no guarantee he's solved it – Williams had nine walks across two starts to open May, for example – but with 29 strikeouts to 12 walks in 20 innings in May, this is the best he's looked in a long time. 

Things might fall apart in his next outing, of course. But Williams is talented enough that I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt when he's suddenly showing flashes. Is he a must-start pitcher all of a sudden? Of course not! Wednesday's was just his second quality start of the season, after all.

But must-roster? Yeah, I can get on board with that. Just in case this latest version of Williams is for real. 

Here's who else we're looking to add from Wednesday's action:

Thursday's top waiver-wire options

Jake Burger, 3B, Rangers (58%) – Burger getting hot after coming back from Triple-A wasn't some kind of bold prediction; it was an inevitability. Burger has always run extremely hot or cold, and his .561 OPS before his demotion wasn't even an especially cold stretch – he had a .601 OPS as late as July 1 last season. He would go on to hit 22 homers and put up an .891 OPS from that point on. He went 3 for 4 with two homers (and a steal!) Wednesday and is now hitting .344 with three homers and five extra-base hits in nine games since coming back. If you liked him enough to make him a top-120 pick two months ago, you should still like Burger roughly that much. Go pick him up. 

Matt Shaw, 3B, Cubs (60%) – Shaw looks a whole lot more comfortable in his second stint in the majors. He looked overwhelmed at times in April, sporting the lowest swing rate in the league, a timid approach that left him in far too many inopportune situations. He hasn't had those issues in three games since returning, going 5 for 11 with a double in each of his first three games, with two steals and just one strikeout to show for it. Shaw was one of the top prospects in the league entering the season, and his struggles in April shouldn't have done much to change our hopes for his best-case scenarios this season. Those best-case scenarios are still in play, and he might even be more well-equipped to live up to them for his early struggles. 

Cade Horton, SP, Cubs (49%) – The line wasn't terribly impressive for Horton – one run allowed in 5.1 innings, but only three strikeouts while walking three? Against the Marlins? But under the hood, there was some good stuff going on, as Horton generated 16 swinging strikes on 92 pitches, including five with his sweeper and nine with his curveball. The fastball has been unimpressive, but the secondaries look solid and should lead to more strikeouts moving forward. Horton is by no means a must-add pitcher, and he's certainly behind the Ryan Weathers/Logan Henderson/Will Warren/Hayden Birdsong group from yesterday. But if you've got a roster spot to play with Horton has some upside, especially with a home start against the Rockies on the way next week. 

Ryan Yarbrough, SP, Yankees (3%) – I'm not convinced there's much upside with Yarbrough, but there was some interesting stuff going on here in Wednesday's start. Yarbrough pulled a classic Yankees move, minimizing his fastball usage (his sinker and four-seamer combined for just 26% of his pitches against the Rangers), with his cutter taking center stage. He generated three whiffs with the cutter while stealing a bunch of called strikes, and his changeup and sweeper provided solid whiff rates, too. The Rangers were unusually passive in this one, swinging at just 54% of pitches in the strike zone, which probably isn't sustainable. But Yarbrough is RP eligible and could be in line for two starts next week, so he's not a bad streamer in points leagues. 

Mike Burrows, SP, Pirates (2%) – Burrows isn't Bubba Chandler. I know, I know, we're all just waiting on Chandler's promotion. But we shouldn't totally ignore Burrows, who is set to return to the majors to start against the Brewers Thursday. Burrows made one relief appearance for the Pirates late last season, but he's going to get his first real shot here. And it's coming as he has looked exceptional in Triple-A, as he has a 31.5% strikeout rate (and 23% K-BB rate) and 2.51 ERA in 32.1 innings of work. Burrows has struggled with injuries and strike-throwing at times in his minor-league career, but he throws in the mid-90s with a legit four-pitch mix and could be a surprisingly useful Fantasy option for deeper leagues.