When the New York Yankees first acquired closer Devin Williams from the Milwaukee Brewers in the offseason, the move was met with great praise as they finally got themselves an elite closer after the disaster that Clay Holmes was last year.
Yankees’ Devin Williams has been a major letdown this season
However, he has underperformed drastically and has already lost his spot as the Yankees’ closer. This season, he has posted a 10.00 ERA in nine innings thrown and has walked an alarming seven batters faced.
For his struggles, ESPN’s David Schoenfield deemed Williams as one of the league’s biggest disappointments so far this season.
“Whoa. You can’t help but wonder whether [Pete] Alonso broke Williams with that home run in last October’s wild-card series between the Brewers and Mets,” Schoenfield wrote. “It seems inexplicable that an elite closer such as Williams could lose it like this, but that has been the case — and it’s worth noting that Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase, who also struggled this past postseason, has already allowed more earned runs than he did in all of 2024.”
Williams needs to turn his struggles around as soon as possible
There’s no sugarcoating it. Williams has struggled mightily with locating his pitches, and he has not been putting hitters away. His devastating changeup hasn’t had the same bite that it had during his time with the Brewers, and he hasn’t been locating his fastball very well.
It is hard to get into a groove when your main pitches are simply not working, but luckily this is happening at the beginning of the season when he can still figure things out and turn it around. In the meantime, Luke Weaver will be the main closer while Williams will get lower-leverage spots.
It is unclear when, or if, Williams will retain his closing role, but he will need to earn it back after a rough start to his Yankees tenure.
