2019 Community Prospect Projections: Justin Williams

Happy Friday! You ought to be happy anyway - Spring Training games start today and the Cardinals will begin their exhibition slate tomorrow. Today, we will wrap up our first year of prospect projections. You can catch up on any projection-casting opportunities you may have missed here; we will close all forms this Sunday, 2/23, at 12:00 PM Eastern Time.

In last summer’s trade between the Cardinals and Rays that sent Tommy Pham south, St Louis added three prospects to their system: left-hander Genesis Cabrera, right-hander Roel Ramirez, and outfielder Justin Williams, the subject of today’s projection post.

Williams is 23 years old and made his MLB debut just days before the trade. He grounded into a double play in his lone plate appearance back on July 21; nonetheless, ‘that’ stone has been overturned.

The Diamondbacks drafted Williams back in 2013 and traded him to Tampa Bay in November of 2014 for Jeremy Hellickson. Williams has spent parts of six years in the Minors, including a combined 115 games at the Triple-A level (94 with the Durham Bulls and 21 with the Memphis Redbirds) in 2018. In 452 at-bats, Williams slashed .252/.307/.379 with 11 home runs and 21 doubles. At Double-A in 2017, Williams smashed 14 long balls.

A story emerged from January’s Cardinals Care Winter Warm-Up that Williams suffered fractured and dislocated fingers in his right hand after he punched a television as the result of a personal issue that must have been pretty angering. It has not been reported how this will affect his spring camp.

So, how do you see Williams performing in 2019? Will he get a chance at more big-league time, or is this hand injury bound to have some aftershocks? Let us know!