Alex Williams goes #322 overall to Miami Marlins
On Tuesday, Stanford senior right handed pitcher Alex Williams went #322 overall to the Miami Marlins, in the 11th round of the 2022 MLB Draft. Williams was the 2022 Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year and in the regular season had an 8-1 record with an ERA under 2.00. In the post-season, Williams really struggled and ended up finishing the season with an 8-4 record and a 3.20 ERA.
There were some questions about whether or not Williams would get picked since he entered the transfer portal as a grad transfer shortly after the College World Series. But in the end, he did get drafted. His overall body of work won out, though it’s certainly true that had he had a strong post-season, he would have almost certainly been drafted on Monday in rounds 3-10.
As far as what Williams will bring to the Marlins, he does bring an overall winning pedigree and when he was on his game, he was really tough to hit. If he can figure out how to correct what went wrong in the post-season and be more of the pitcher he was during the regular season, he could end up being a real steal at this point of the draft.
Given he’s a Day 3 selection, it’s fair to ask whether or not Williams will come back for one more year of college baseball to boost his stock or if he’ll just begin his major league journey now. Personally, I think it makes sense for Williams to sign with the Marlins, start out in the lowest ranks of the minor leagues, and start honing his professional craft now. If he were to come back for another year of college, I think he’d actually risk falling even more in the draft and I’m not sure he’d be picked that much higher. Assuming Williams does sign with the Marlins as I think he should, it’ll be interesting to see how he does and whether or not he’ll be able to work his way up to the major league level after at least a couple seasons of development.
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