When the New York Yankees acquired All-Star closer Devin Williams during the offseason, he was expected to be the anchor of their bullpen. Unfortunately, he has done nothing but sink that unit.
Williams arrived at Friday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays with a 7.88 ERA, in a start to the season in which the Bronx Bombers thought he would be much more productive from the start, however, it is possible that Williams hit rock bottom this weekend.
The Yankees put Devin Williams in the game with a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth inning, and his only job was to shut the door on the Blue Jays, but instead Williams had a regrettable pitching performance.
The reliever made just 12 pitches and allowed three runs before leaving the game without recording a single out.
“Just nothing is working right now,” Williams said after the team’s 4-2 defeat. “And all I can do is keep working and hopefully get better results.”
Yankees fans’ hate messages to Williams
Immediately after Williams blew the save Friday night, Yankees fans flooded his Instagram page to leave him hateful messages, and it got ugly.
“You’re a disaster. You haven’t even come out and I already know you’re going to ruin the game for us,” one fan commented on a recent post by Williams on Instagram. “I HATE YOU”.
“Out of New York,” wrote a second fan. “You’re a mess, man. Please apologize to the team,” said another.
In six seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, Williams accumulated 68 saves, 36 of them in the 2023 season.
With the Yankees, he has four saves in five opportunities, but his last two outings have been terribly disappointing as he allowed four runs on April 19 against Tampa Bay, and three more on Friday against Toronto to leave a record of zero wins and two losses.
Before those two games, Williams’ numbers were very decent, but he currently has an ERA of 11.25 heading into Saturday’s game.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone has already said he is not committed to him being the closer from now on.
“We’ll see,” Boone told ESPN. “We’ll talk about it. It’s a delicate subject right now. We want to do everything we can to make sure he’s OK because we know how good he is and how valuable he’s going to be for us.”
At this point, it is probably best for the Yankees and Williams to make a change in the bullpen and give a moment of respite and meditation to a closer who is recognized for his good work in relief, simply because things are not going well for him right now.
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