Late last night the Braves announced that outfielder Eddie Rosario was going to undergo laser eye surgery and will miss between 8 to 12 weeks of the season. This will seem to answer the question of who’s roster spot Ronald Acuña Jr. will take when he comes off the injured list sometime in the next week, but at least in the short-term the Braves are going to take a look at another of their young rookie pitchers.
The Player
William Woods, RHP
Age: 23
OFR Prospect Rank: 17
2022 Level: AA/AAA
The Results (2021/22, all levels)
5.40 ERA / 5.95 FIP
11 G, 6 GS
18.1 IP
2.95 BB/9
10.80 K/9
The History
Right-handed pitcher William Woods has been in the Atlanta Braves organization since he was drafted in the 23rd round of the 2018 MLB Amateur Draft out of Dyersburg State Community College in Tennessee. He did not draw much attention during his first couple of seasons despite a solid season with Low-A Rome in 2019, but during the COVID-shortened 2020 season he posted a video of himself on Twitter hitting 99 on the radar gun that drew the attention of the Braves brass, who quickly invited him to spend some time at their Alternate Training Site late in the season.
Woods parlayed his work there into a big league spring training invite for 2021, where he impressed the major league coaches. Unfortunately, Woods was injured during 2021 spring training, and he missed a majority of the season. He finally returned in late August to make four short starts at High-A Rome towards the end of the season before being elevated to Mississippi to pitch for them during the playoffs. Woods followed that up with a stint in the Arizona Fall League, where he generated a respectable 4.29 ERA over 21 innings to finish out his season.
Woods was added to the Braves 40-man roster during the offseason to protect him during the Rule 5 Draft (which never took place). Due to this event, he was behind in his preparations due to not being able to report to camp until after the lockout ended in March. Despite the delay, Woods began his season as Mississippi’s opening day starter and lasted only three innings, giving up three runs on four hits. A few days later, he was moved to the Mississippi bullpen where he gave up three runs in his first one-inning appearance. His second outing went much better as he pitched a perfect inning, striking out two. Woods was surprisingly promoted shortly afterwards to Triple-A Gwinnett, where he was immediately thrust into action on Tuesday, April 19th and struck out all three batters he faced. Two days later, Woods pitched another perfect inning, striking out two of three batters. He then got his third appearance of the week on Sunday, striking out all three batters he faced.
The Report
Listed at 6-3 and 190 pounds, Woods has the length to get good extension with all three of his pitches. As a starter, Woods leans on a 4-seamer fastball that sits around 92-94 with a sharp slider and a developing change-up. When all three pitches are working he can be as good as anyone in the system, but he has enough issues with command that it’s seldom that all three pitches are working.
That is likely one reason why the Braves elected to go ahead and move him to the bullpen, where he only needs two of his three pitches to land in any given outing. Another is that his 4-seam fastball becomes a much more impressive high-90s heater that occasionally touches 100 mph. The slider can get somewhat slurvy, but has good depth at times. The change-up has good fade and Woods will throw it to both lefties and righties.
Like many young pitchers, command has been Woods’ challenge, and the lack of innings over the previous season didn’t do him any favors. This did not appear to be an issue in his brief relief stint this season, and on short stints Woods may have the ability to more directly challenge hitters.
What’s Next
There is an opportunity in Atlanta to stick around if Woods can make an impression. So far Atlanta has not been able to come close to replacing Luke Jackson in the short mid-/high-leverage role in the bullpen. On May 1 the roster will shrink to the normal 26 players, and Woods will need to show he can be counted on enough to put him ahead of the likes of Spencer Strider and Jackson Stephens.
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