Gavin Williams’ sinker grip turns a Yankee test into a laboratory

The Guardians right-hander’s run of dominance is tied to one pitch, one feel, and a specific kind of late movement he says he can count on even when he pulls it.

By The Apex Times Newsroom4 min readAI-assisted Apex article

CLEVELAND Guardians right-hander Gavin Williams did not begin his latest explanation with numbers. He began with a baseball. “I can show you better than I can tell you,” Williams said before a day game at Yankee Stadium last week, according to MLB. In Cleveland, that same idea has become a blueprint for why he has looked like a top-of-the-rotation pitcher, with his sinker grip and usage doing more than simply add movement. It is shaping how hitters experience the zone against him, pitch by pitch.

As Williams takes the mound Monday at Progressive Field against the Yankees, the larger context is that his swing-and-miss success has become sustained, not sporadic. MLB reported that he enters the start leading the American League in strikeouts (94) and posting a top-10 strikeout rate (29.0%) among qualified starting pitchers. Since the 2025 All-Star break, only four starters have been harder to hit than Williams, with him tied for the lowest batting average against among that group (.201). MLB also noted that his ERA in the same span is 2.72, and that he has made measurable gains in walk prevention, with his walk rate in the 63rd percentile this season.

The sinker is at the center of the change. MLB said Williams is throwing fewer four-seam fastballs than at any point in his career, especially against right-handed hitters, and replacing that volume with more two-seamer/sinker usage. In particular, the article reported that his sinker usage is 28% against righties while his four-seam usage drops to 17% in those matchups. It is also not just a theoretical shift. MLB wrote that after the 2025 All-Star break, he threw 20 sinkers in his first start out of the break, and that he has thrown more than 20 sinkers in five different games already this season.

Williams’ approach is designed to solve a problem of his own making. MLB described his explanation for why he is comfortable leaning on the pitch even when his mechanics get “juiced up.” He said his four-seam miss is worse when it gets out toward the outer half, and that with the sinker, a particular seam-based effect lets him “run it back” toward the strike zone instead of watching it drift away. That seam-based effect is the concept MLB connects to “seam-shifted wake,” where the orientation of the baseball’s seams can create late, unexpected movement as the ball travels toward home plate.

The grip details are where the story stops sounding like general baseball talk. According to MLB, Williams cycled through multiple grips while developing the two-seamer. He tried the “Kluber” grip popularized by Corey Kluber, but said it did not work because he still produced too much backspin, making the pitch behave more like a four-seam. Eventually, he settled on a feel that rests the crease of his fingers on the seams, with his pointer finger off to the side of the MLB logo, and his thumb placed on another seam below. MLB reported that this grip allows him to harness seam-shifted wake so that even when he pulls the sinker, it can “come back” toward the plate.

Even then, Williams’ sinker use does not match what hitters often assume. MLB wrote that rather than living down-and-in or trying to bury the pitch on the inner third, Williams has the fourth-highest rate of sinkers on the outer third in right-on-right matchups, with only six pitchers (minimum 100 sinkers) using the inner third less. At the same time, he has paired that sinker with a sweeper that he developed by changing his slider grip to emphasize more horizontal movement. MLB described how he uses them as a set: throw the sweeper off the plate, then return with a sinker that looks like it will stay outside but carries late back over the plate, or start with the sinker on the outer half and then follow with sweepers off the plate to create chase.

The results, as MLB framed them, are why this matters beyond pitch aesthetics. Against right-handed hitters in putaway counts, MLB reported that Williams records strikeouts 43.5% of the time on his sinker, and that in two-strike at-bats ending with a sinker he has totaled 10 strikeouts in 17 at-bats. The sweeper has also helped set the table, with MLB noting it generates the third-highest swing-and-miss rate among qualified sweepers. For Cleveland, the next question is simple and practical: can opposing hitters adjust their approach quickly enough to handle a sinker that is not thrown for one location, but for a late destination?

Why It Matters

Williams’ success illustrates how modern pitching is increasingly built on controllable late movement and specialized grip feel, not just raw velocity.
For Cleveland, a No. 1-style starter with this kind of matchup-specific pitch plan can stretch the rotation’s ceiling during the middle stretch of the season.
For opponents, the challenge is not just recognizing a sinker, but anticipating its late trajectory and how it pairs with the sweeper to attack different depths of the zone.
The Yankees represent a high-visibility test, with pressure on both sides to see whether this sinker plan keeps holding up once hitters have more at-bats to study it.

Sources

Key Facts

Gavin Williams told MLB he learns and communicates his pitching feel by showing, not just explaining.
Entering Monday’s start versus the Yankees at Progressive Field, MLB reported Williams leads the American League in strikeouts (94) and has a 29.0% strikeout rate among qualified starters.
Since the 2025 All-Star break, MLB reported Williams ranks among the hardest pitchers to hit (batting average against.201) and has a 2.72 ERA in that span.
MLB reported Williams cut his four-seam usage in favor of more sinkers, with sinker usage at 28% against righties and four-seam usage at 17% in those matchups.
MLB described a specific grip: finger crease resting on the seams, pointer finger off to the side of the MLB logo, and the thumb on another seam below, designed to harness seam-shifted wake movement.
MLB reported Williams uses the sinker differently than most, throwing it heavily on the outer third of the zone in right-on-right matchups and rarely working the inner third.
Against righties in two-strike putaway counts, MLB reported the sinker produces a 43.5% strikeout rate, while his sweeper helps create swing-and-miss.