NEW YORK – The Yankees continue to preach patience with Devin Williams, voicing confidence that he will settle in to replicate his excellent track record as a two-time National League Reliever of the Year.
It hasn’t happened yet. Williams blew a ninth-inning lead and was booed off the Yankee Stadium mound, with Alejandro Kirk’s two-run double providing the margin of victory in the Yankees’ 4-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Friday evening.
“Nothing’s working right now,” Williams said. “… 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 implosion marked Williams’ first blown save in five chances as a Yankee. But he has struggled in several other outings, including coughing up a four-run lead against the Rays last Saturday in Tampa.
This is strange territory for Williams. A two-time NL All-Star (2022, ’23), the 30-year-old right-hander known for his “Airbender” changeup fashioned a razor-thin 1.83 ERA across 241 appearances with the Brewers from 2019-24, saving 68 games.
But the Yankees, who acquired Williams in a December swap for left-hander Nestor Cortes and infielder Caleb Durbin, haven’t seen anything close to that performance yet.
“We want to do everything we can to get him right,” said manager Aaron Boone. “We know how good he is and how valuable he’s going to be for us.”
After making waves this spring by voicing his opposition to a long-standing club grooming policy that forbade players from sporting beards, Williams has allowed 12 runs (10 earned) across his first eight innings as a Yankee, an unsightly 11.25 ERA.
Williams allowed just three earned runs in 21 1/3 innings last year (1.25 ERA).
“The hitters tell you if it’s working or not, right?” Williams said. “You can’t really just base that off what you’re doing in the bullpen. It’s the swings they’re having; I’m falling behind in counts. I’m not doing what I need to do.”
Friday’s outing soured quickly. Assigned to protect a one-run lead fashioned by Austin Wells’ eighth-inning sacrifice fly, Williams allowed a leadoff single to George Springer that set off alarm bells within the Yankees’ infield.
Five pitches in, there was a huddle on the mound, one in which second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. said he was trying to deliver a confidence boost.
“It’s new; New York, it’s big, it’s a little different,” Chisholm said. “But I know my guy. I’ve faced him and I’ve talked to him a lot over the past years. I just know what he’s got. So I just went out there and told him, ‘Hey, this is your moment right here. You’re the guy every time. This is who we want to give it to, and that’s why you’re here. We all believe in you, and we’ve all got your back.’”
It seemed to work, if only momentarily. Williams worked the count to 2-2 against the next batter, Andrés Giménez, who absorbed a fastball off the right knee that prompted groans and grumbles from the sellout crowd of 46,081.
Some booed, and others chanted, “We want Weaver,” calling for Luke Weaver, who excelled in the ninth inning last September and October when Clay Holmes’ ongoing struggles prompted a late-season change. Williams heard.
“Everyone has their opinions,” Williams said. “I don’t have an opinion on it.”
The jeers grew louder when Kirk pummeled Williams’ changeup over Trent Grisham’s head in center field for a go-ahead knock, Springer and Giménez running tightly together with the tying and go-ahead runs. Boone pointed to the bullpen, and a third run charged to Williams scored on Addison Barger’s hit off Mark Leiter Jr.
“He’s had a hard time getting count leverage,” Boone said of Williams. “He’s been behind [in the count] a lot, and that’s not a great recipe.”
The collapse spoiled a taut contest that featured encouraging performances from Carlos Carrasco (five scoreless innings), Anthony Volpe (double and run scored), and Cody Bellinger (single, double, walk, run scored).
“We’re going to have some ups and downs, but he’s not alone,” Carrasco said of Williams. “He has the whole team behind him. I think everything’s going to be all right.”
First, the Yankees may entertain moving Williams into lower-leverage assignments, at least temporarily. Boone was not ready to discuss that in the wake of Friday’s loss, saying it still felt “raw,” but he did not dismiss the suggestion outright.
“We’ll see. We’ll kind of talk through that stuff,” Boone said.
Perhaps the Yanks will find a silver lining in this: Even in Milwaukee, the beginning of the season was always Williams’ roughest. His career splits show a handful of clunky performances in the early going, then stellar numbers the rest of the regular season.
“At the end of the day, I still believe in myself,” Williams said. “I believe in my ability to go out there and shut it down. So I’m just going to keep working.”