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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — Yankees manager Aaron Boone did not dismiss the possibility of removing Devin Williams from the closer role — at least temporarily — after Williams continued his struggles Friday, blowing a save and getting booed off the mound by the Yankee Stadium crowd in an eventual 4-2 loss to the Blue Jays.
“We’ll see,” Boone said. “We’ll have a talk through that stuff. This is raw right now. We want to do everything we can to get him right because we know how good he is and how valuable he’s going to be for us.”
Williams, a two-time All-Star and one of the best relievers in the majors since his debut in 2020, entered Friday’s game in the ninth inning with the Yankees leading 2-1. He allowed a leadoff single to George Springer, which immediately prompted antsy fans to begin chanting, “We want Weaver!” — a plea for setup man Luke Weaver, who has a spotless ERA in 11 outings this season, to close the game. Williams then plunked Andres Gimenez with a 2-2 fastball before the backbreaking blow: a two-run, go-ahead double from Alejandro Kirk on a changeup over the plate.
That ended Williams’ night after 12 pitches, five of which were strikes. He fell behind in the count 3-1 to Springer, 2-0 to Gimenez and 1-0 to Kirk, a problem that has haunted him all season. He walked off the mound to heavy booing from the home crowd.
“Just nothing’s working right now,” said Williams, who has an 11.25 ERA across 10 appearances this season. “And all I can do is continue to work and hopefully get some better results here.”
The Yankees acquired Williams, 30, from the Milwaukee Brewers in December to replace Clay Holmes as closer in his final season before reaching free agency next winter.
With Williams and Weaver, a breakout star down the stretch and through October last season, the Yankees envisioned a shutdown back end of the bullpen. Williams made a resounding impact on the franchise before throwing a pitch in a game that mattered when he served as the catalyst behind the scenes to have Yankees brass change the longstanding no-beard policy during spring training.
But Williams has not resembled the pitcher who starred in Milwaukee.
That pitcher posted a 1.83 ERA over six seasons with the Brewers behind a mystifying screwball-like changeup known as The Airbender. Williams has historically struggled early in the season — he entered Friday with a 4.08 career ERA between March and April, his worst by far in any month — but these struggles have been different. Last year, after missing the first four months of the season with a back injury, Williams faced 88 batters and allowed three earned runs on 10 hits over 21⅔ innings. This season, he has faced 44 batters and yielded 10 earned runs on 12 hits across eight innings.
In addition to the command troubles that resurfaced Friday, Williams is missing fewer bats than usual. Last year, he posted a 40% whiff rate, which was a career low. This year, it has plummeted to 24.1%. A year after holding batters to a .133 batting average and .488 OPS, opponents are hitting .343 with a .912 OPS.
“I wish there was an easy answer, but I’m not really sure,” Williams said. “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.”
Asked if the crowd’s reaction bothered him, Williams said he didn’t “have an opinion on it.”
“At the end of the day, I still believe in myself,” he said. “I believe in my ability to go out there and shut it down, so I’m just going to keep working.”
