Guardians Roster Moves: Will Wilson to the ML Team, Lane Thomas to the IL

Let’s see if the Will Wilson Phenomenon is real, shall we?

The Guardians have announced that Lane Thomas will be going to the 10-Day IL with a bone bruise on his wrist, Trevor Stephan (in a procedural move) is headed to the 60-Day IL and infielder Will Wilson is being added to the major league roster.

Thomas has had an abysmal start to the season, so hopefully he can take this IL stint as an opportunity to get healthy and reset. Meanwhile. it looks like Guardians’ fans will see Angel Martinez full-time in centerfield, with Daniel Schneemann and Nolan Jones backing him up there as needed. Martinez has put up a 147 wRC+ in nine games in Cleveland. He hasn’t taken a walk yet, but has also only struckout 11% of the time. It’ll be fun to watch to see if he can make himself indispensable to the team, perhaps getting Lane Thomas into Jhonkensy Noel’s role when he returns, should Noel continue to struggle.

Meanwhile, it’s time for us to get acquainted with Will Wilson. Wilson was drafted 15th overall by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2019. The Guardians selected him in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 draft last December from the Giants. I found an interesting write-up from SB Nation’s Phillies blog on Wilson from 2019, where he was seen as likely a second baseman with above average power, average speed, great bat speed, and solid plate discpline. All of this had not panned out in the minors up through 2024 as Wilson had an 89 wRC+ in 1,677 plate appearances as a professional. But, the Guardians saw enough potential in Wilson to add him to their Columbus roster and enough potential, now, to give him perhaps his only shot at being a big league player at the age of 26.

How did Wilson earn this shot? Well, he has hit the baseball well from the time he has donned a Cleveland uniform. He put up a 110 wRC+ in Spring Training and a whopping 184 wRC+ in Columbus, where he has hit 6 homers and put up a 19/11 K/BB%. He’s played three games at second base, one at shortstop, and 12 at third base for the Clippers. His average exit velo has gone up by 7 mph to 96 mph and his hard-hit rate from 2023-2024 has almost doubled, sitting at 65% right now. He’s going to get a chance to show whether or not this is a typical small sample-size blip or if he has finally unlocked the potential that got him picked in the first round of the MLB draft.

Now, part of what’s going on is that Juan Brito is ALSO nursing nagging injury and the Guardians don’t want to bring Brito up until he has a spot to play everyday. So, Wilson is a bit of a placeholder and not someone they’ll have to worry about DFAing if he struggles. But, it’s important to note that the Guardians are showing here that they believe something about Wilson’s breakout this year is real. He’s dropped his minor league career chase rate by about 8%, and seems to be providing a consistently good approach at the plate. He still has plenty of swing-and-miss with a 14% swinging strike rate, but his overall in-zone contact rate is a perfectly sustainable 83% right now.

It’s time to see if the minor-league breakout numbers can continue for the right-handed hitting Wilson in Cleveland, apparently. It’s also pretty cool that after a lengthy period in the minors, Wilson will make his major league debut today and do it with our team. Welcome, Will!