“No, I’m headed to Cleveland — to the Futures Game,” Williams said this past week. “I was pretty shocked. I thought getting traded was far more likely to happen than going to the Futures Game. I’ve put myself on a good path. Oh, I’m excited. People are taking notice. And I’m heading in there with a point to prove.”
Plucked by a division rival out of the Cardinals’ backyard in the 2013 draft, Williams returned to St. Louis this past winter, his first offseason at home since elbow surgery, and threw himself into a regimen that reshaped who he could be as a pitcher.