Darren Williams is healthy. What does that mean for Kentucky's pitching staff?
Williams will need to shake off rust following Tommy John surgery less than a year ago, but he's likely to play a big role on Kentucky's staff in 2023.
Darren Williams will be one of the oldest pitchers in college baseball this season. He could also be one of the most important on Kentucky’s pitching staff. The seventh-year senior was recently cleared to return to all baseball activities following his recovery from Tommy John surgery, which he underwent in May 2022 to repair a torn UCL in his right elbow.
It was an unfortunate injury for both Williams and the Wildcats. The Maysville, Kentucky, native had just moved into the weekend rotation once SEC play began. In his second start, which came against eventual national champion Ole Miss — Williams tossed 6.1 innings, allowed two earned runs, struck out seven and walked just one batter. Kentucky went on to win 9-2, but Williams’ season ended. His numbers to that point in the season were excellent; 29.0 innings, 31 strikeouts, 10 walks, 25 hits allowed against 124 batters faced, and an earned run average of 0.93.
Still, Williams was granted another year of eligibility and is back in the blue and white in 2023. We’ve gotten used to older players in college sports because of the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA in 2020, but Williams’ case is still unique. He redshirted at Eastern Kentucky University in 2017 and mainly served as a reliever from 2018-20. In 2021, he blossomed into a workhorse as EKU’s Friday night starter. Williams ranked second in the Ohio Valley Conference in strikeouts (92), innings pitched (83.1) and was ninth in the OVC in opposing batting average.
Williams pitched seven games out of the bullpen at Kentucky before earning a spot in the weekend rotation. As he enters his final season (for real this time), what will his role be? I’ll dig into Kentucky’s staff as a whole in a story later this week, but for now, there are a couple of questions that need to be answered.
How quickly can Williams be back up to speed?
Former Kentucky starter Mason Hazelwood is a recent example of a UK pitcher who had Tommy John surgery and returned rather quickly. I reported on March 31, 2021, that Hazelwood’s season was done, though I’m not sure of his exact timeline for surgery after that. Regardless, Hazelwood made his season debut on March 2nd last year, less than a year after surgery. He was brought along slowly in his first few appearances but eventually threw a season-high 87 pitches against Vanderbilt in April.
No two recoveries are the same, so Hazelwood and Williams might not be perfect examples, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Williams on a similar path this year. That leads to the next question…
Where will he fit into the rest of the rotation?
I don’t want to be redundant since I’ll be discussing the staff in a few days, but how the rest of the rotation fares without Williams is essential in determining his role. A weekend spot to begin the season seems unlikely because of the time he missed.
The more interesting question is how pitching coach Dan Roszel manages the staff early in the season. Logan Martin and Tyler Bosma seem likely to be weekend starters. That leaves several options vying for the final weekend spot: Ryan Hagenow, Magdiel Cotto, Zack Lee and Austin Strickland are names that come to mind. A healthy Williams fits into that final group and could perform well if called upon, but I’ll be curious to see how Roszel manages those pieces. It’s an easy call if any of the names above take the Sunday starter role and performs well, but how long of a leash will a struggling pitcher get?
Regardless, it’s hard to envision Williams not playing a big role in some form or fashion. Whether it’s eventually as a weekend starter or as a key bullpen piece in SEC games, Williams’ experience is a luxury for this staff and he’ll surely be called upon to throw important innings.