CLEARWATER, Fla. — Devin Williams arrived in the Bronx with a resume to die for, including the title as the National League’s premier closer, a changeup as intuitive as AI and a fierceness that makes him the perfect guy to get those last three outs.
Whatever issues the Yankees are dealing with this spring, the bullpen isn’t one of them. Williams has the potential to be the Bombers’ best closer since you know who.
But he also comes with baggage, still haunted by his final appearance in the 2024 post season.
Mets fans will gladly give you the play by play. They’re still woozy from it. They’ve committed to memory every last detail of the conquest of the Brewers’ reliever who, ironically enough, now wears pinstripes.
- The setting:
Game 3 of the best-of-3 Wild Card Series.
- The arm
Williams, who’d blown only one save all season. Hadn’t allowed a home run against his change-up.
- The bat:
Pete Alonso, a 34-home run powerhouse, but still vulnerable (.213) after the seventh inning.
- The result:
A shocking opposite-field three-run HR that propelled the Mets to the Division Series and left the Brewers – and Williams – crushed.
Four months later, wearing a different uniform and pitching in a different league, Williams still can’t believe what’d happened to him.
“No right-handed hitter has ever done that to me, taking me out to right-center,” Williams said quietly after the Yankees overpowered the Phillies, 12-3 on Tuesday.
The numbers underscore Williams’ disbelief. Of the 88 batters he faced, only one took him deep – “and that was off a fastball,” Williams said.
That means his change-up was officially HR-proof by the time Alonso stepped to the plate. No wonder the Brewers freaked. No wonder the Mets partied like it was 1969 all over again,
It took weeks for Williams to live with the shock. But even now, he he’sstill baffled,
“Honestly it was a decent pitch, I have no idea how he hit it,” Williams said before segueing into a longer discussion about whether he’d tipped the pitch to Alonso.
Williams didn’t think so but asked the Yankees to review video of Game 3. They had every reason to investigate and help Williams become tip-free – if, in fact, he was.
But the pitching coach Matt Blake concluded Williams gave nothing away. Alonso hit the blast on his own, forcing the right-hander to concede, “he just put a good swing on it.”
But that explanation didn’t make Williams feel any better, because no one – no one – has solved his changeup as easily as Alonso.
For their part, the Yankees aren’t obsessing over Williams’ past. They’re thinking ahead, convinced Williams is good enough to run the table. He might not blow a save all summer.
The reason is the gravity-defying change-up, which the awe-struck Yankees call the “air-bender.”
“The first time I was behind the plate (during batting practice), I was like, ‘wow’” said manager Aaron Boone. “It’s very unique watching Devin pitch. His change-up just dies at the plate, almost like a combination of forkball, knuckleball and change-up”
It’s a no-brainer for the Yankees to want Williams to stick around for several more years. They’re so impressed with his upside that Hal Steinbrenner lifted the club’s facial hair policy – in part to placate Williams, who hated having to shave his beard after arriving in camp
The relaxed rules not only have allowed Williams to start a new beard, it also opens the door to Williams signing with the Yankees as a free agent next week.
Is a long-term relationship possible? Williams say yes, but who knows. He’s a man of few words, generally detached.
Bullpen mate Luke Weaver says Williams is “a great guy” but admits he’s unfamiliar with Williams’ technique for crushing hitters.
“Our (camp) routines aren’t the same, so I’ve mostly had to study him on old You Tube videos,” Weaver said. “He’s pretty deceptive on the mound, has good extension and his fastball is really live. It’s got some jump.”
Weaver is a board certified expert on power four-seamers. He took the closer’s job from Clay Holmes last year with a high-90s fastball of his own.
The Yankees were sold on the explosiveness of Weaver’s velocity off his no-windup slide-step delivery. They contemplated handing him the keys for 2025 and beyond, but that was before they learned the Brewers were making their closer available,
There’s an obvious risk acquiring a player in his walk year. He could simply leave. But Williams seems to be fitting in already. Coupling him with Weaver might be the ultimate sales pitch..
The Bombers could be outright untouchable after the seventh inning. One American League scout, however,vsays Weaver and Williams would be even more effective if they were broken up.
As in, use Weaver in the seventh, give opponents an entirely different look in the eighth with Tim Hill or Mark Leiter Jr., and then came back in the ninth with Williams’ wipeout fastball-changeup pairing.
I ran that by Boone on Tuesday, who politely passed.
“I’m not opposed to mixing and matching and the theory of splitting up (Williams and Weaver),” Boone said. “But I really like going to the guys with the hammer.
We know about Weaver’s make-up, so it counts for something when he says, “(Williams) has ice in his veins.”
All that’s left is to debug Williams’ delivery before Opening Day. Just to make sure he’s not tipping.
Sounds simple, a lot less complicated than getting to the bottom of Alonso’s home run. That might end up in the Unsolved Mysteries drawer. Maybe forever.
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Bob Klapisch may be reached at bklapisch@njadvancemedia.com.
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