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After the trade to the New York Yankees, Devin Williams was expected to be a central cog in a dominant bullpen. Just one month after the regular season began, Williams has already lost his job as the closer.
Williams was a two-time All-Star before joining the Yankees, but he's struggled mightily since then. He blew a save and gave up three runs in a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays before getting demoted.
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Manager Aaron Boone made the call to demote Williams and promote Luke Weaver back to the closer role. The manager revealed how he made that decision on Talkin' Yanks:
"More in the moment, don't want to make a rash decision, so probably just my pitching group a little but, but more just my call and feeling like it was the right thing to do at that time.
"You want to do right by first and foremost the team and by the player and in this case, we're talking about a really good player. Want to do everything we can to get him to where we know he can be."
What does Williams need to do to get back there? Boone said:
"It's getting ahead, and really, it's fastball command. I think that's what it starts with. I thought his fastball was really good last night, you know that aggressive fastball and that's more in line with what I feel like we're going to see as the season unfolds."
Williams was traded for Nestor Cortes, currently on the 60-day Injured List and who gave up home runs to the Yankees on the first three pitches he threw, and Caleb Durbin.
Devin Williams addresses struggles with Yankees
The New York Yankees clawed back to take a 2-1 lead heading into the ninth inning and handed the ball to Devin Williams on Friday night. He responded by allowing his 12th run (10th earned) in the loss.
He addressed the struggles that night, via MLB:
“Nothing’s working right now... I wish there was an easy answer, but I’m not really sure. It’s not a good feeling, not to be able to get the job done for the team. They put us in a great position to win there, and I couldn’t get it done today.”
The former Milwaukee Brewers star came into Monday night's contest and pitched a clean inning with a strikeout against the Baltimore Orioles, but the Yankees were already trailing 4-3 at that point.
