Devin Williams

Devin Williams pitched for the New York Yankees for exactly one season, and it might be the wildest 12 months a bullpen arm has had in the Bronx this decade. The right-hander arrived in December 2024 as a two-time All-Star closer with a nickname -- "Airbender," for a changeup that doesn't seem to obey physics -- and left 13 months later having been demoted twice, redeemed once, and shipped off to the Mets with a shot fired at Yankees fans on his way out the door. Buckle up.

Path to the Bronx

Williams grew up in St. Louis, raised by his mother, Angela Norton, and turned down a commitment to Missouri when the Brewers took him in the second round of the 2013 draft. He debuted in Milwaukee in 2019 and broke out the next year in a way that still sounds made up: a 0.33 ERA over 27 innings in 2020, the lowest single-season ERA (minimum 21 innings) since earned runs became an official stat in 1913. He won NL Rookie of the Year and NL Reliever of the Year in the same season -- Josh Hader was Milwaukee's closer that year, so Williams did it as a shutdown setup man who never recorded a single save.

He backed it up with All-Star nods in 2022 and 2023, plus a second Reliever of the Year award in '23 (36 saves, a 1.53 ERA, opponents hitting .129 against him -- basically unfair). Even a lost first half of 2024 -- two stress fractures in his back kept him out until late July -- didn't scare the Yankees off. On December 13, 2024, they sent Nestor Cortes, infielder Caleb Durbin, and cash to Milwaukee for Williams, betting a rotation piece on a ninth-inning arm they figured would push them past the Dodgers next October.

Yankees Career

It didn't start that way. Williams' first month in pinstripes was a disaster -- he allowed 12 runs in 8 innings, blew a four-run lead against Tampa Bay, and on April 27, 2025, Aaron Boone pulled him from the closer role entirely. Luke Weaver took over. Two weeks into a season the Yankees had traded a big-league starter to set up, their new closer was pitching low-leverage innings (which, for a guy who'd just been a two-time All-Star, had to sting).

Then Weaver got hurt in early June, and Williams got the ball back. What followed was close to the pitcher Milwaukee had known -- over a 29-appearance stretch that summer, he was freakin' nasty, posting a 2.28 ERA and striking out 38.1% of the batters he faced. For a while, he was the Yankees' most trustworthy reliever (a sentence nobody would've typed in April).

Look at the gap between that 4.79 ERA and the 2.68 FIP -- it was the widest ERA-FIP split among qualified relievers in baseball in 2025. That doesn't erase the results, but it does complicate the "bust" label a lot of Yankee fans reached for by June.

The redemption didn't stick as the closer, though. At the trade deadline, the Yankees added David Bednar and Camilo Doval to reinforce the pen, and Boone said at the time Williams would stay in the ninth inning. He didn't. Bednar got hot, took the job in August, and never gave it back. Williams closed out the regular season with nine straight scoreless outings anyway, then threw four more scoreless innings in October -- including the win in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against Boston -- without recording a single postseason save. The Yankees lost the ALDS to Toronto in four games on October 8, and that was that.

Key Moments

One Year, No Sentimentality

Williams didn't exactly walk out the door quietly. After signing with the Mets, he told reporters he wanted to play for "a team that wants to win," crediting Steve Cohen for the spending -- a dig that lands a little differently given the Yankees made the playoffs in 2025 and the Mets didn't. When fans pushed back online, he clapped back on Instagram: "For a bunch of people that didn't want me back on your team, y'all sure are mad in the DMs." Fair or not, that's the kind of parting shot that doesn't get forgotten in the Bronx.

Here's the thing, though -- the numbers back up at least half of his frustration. He got run out of town for a 4.79 ERA that his own strikeout rate and FIP said he didn't fully deserve, closed the year with a scoreless October, and still watched two other guys leapfrog him for the job. One year, two demotions, one redemption arc, and a contract detail worth knowing on its own: the Mets deferred part of that $51 million all the way out to 2036, so Williams will be cashing Yankees-adjacent grudge checks well into his 40s.

Thirteen months, two demotions, and a going-away shot at the fan base -- that's the whole Devin Williams file in the Bronx. The stuff was never the problem. The ninth inning just never fully belonged to him again.