The Mets BROKE MLB's Best Reliever And The Yankees Need To Fix Him

It's September 28th, 2024, and Devin Williams is the best reliever in baseball, and I don't think that's really something to even argue against. Someone who, up to this point, not only just hadn't had a bad season, but had not had an elite season. I mean, Devin Williams was just the picture-perfect back-end reliever. Whether you wanted him in the closers role or before the closers role, or whatever, it didn't matter. Wherever you wanted him pitching, he was the best. In 222 career innings, his ERA was 1.7. He averaged almost 15 strikeouts per 9 innings, which is absurd. He didn't allow many base runners on. Just as dominant as it gets. You can't ask for anything more. He won Rookie of the Year in 2020 after putting up a 0.33 ERA. Although at the time, it would have been easy to say that was the pandemic year. It was only 27 innings. He'll fall right back down to earth. And to be fair, in twice as many innings in 2021, his ERA did shoot up to 2.5, but since 2022, his ERA was 1.66. He's been striking out the world, so he really just has been that good. His rookie season wasn't some lightning in a bottle year. So when the Brewers were 3 outs away from their first playoff series win since 2018, up 2 runs, there's nobody else in baseball you'd want on the mound than Devin Williams. And there's anybody else you'd rather have on the mound if you're the Mets. Well, skip ahead to April 11, 2025, and Devin Williams is broken. Really quick as always, if you're part of the 51% of viewers not subscribed yet, go ahead and hit that button if you enjoy the videos, as based off the last 5 years leading up to this outing, Devin Williams getting a save with a 2 run lead seemed as likely as a Christopher Nolan movie being a banger. But here and again, there will be a tenet. And this is what this was for Williams. But I mean, this turned into a complete disaster. It didn't take very long for it to become that, and it also didn't take very long for fans to realize something wasn't exactly normal. Devin Williams was tipping his pitches. He was having tendencies that unintentionally gave the Mets hitters signs of what he was about to throw. His changeup? Not only what's supposed to be his best pitch, but maybe the best pitch in baseball became the most hittable pitch. They couldn't have been more on it. And the Brewers went from a 2-0 lead, 3 outs, even 2 outs away from a series win, to down 4-2 in a heartbreaking series loss. It's one of those rare times, I feel like, where you can trace all your team's problems in a game to one guy. That usually isn't the case, but Williams single-handedly, he blew it. And that sucks, obviously. Imagine what that feels like. One outing obviously doesn't change the fact that he's the best reliever in baseball over the last five years, so it's not a surprise the Yankees came calling when he was available via trade by the Brewers. The Brewers are harsh, man. They saw one bad outing after half a decade of dominance and said, you're out of here. No, it wasn't because of that. It's because Williams had just one year left on his rookie contract before becoming a free agent, and the Brewers knew they weren't going to pay him. They needed a starting pitcher, so they said, all right, give us Nestor Cortez, we'll give you Devin. Perfect. This'll work out great. To be fair to Nestor, he was good his next outing. He didn't give up a run. He only allowed one hit. So shout out to, oh, you gotta be shitting me. And then he was put on the injured list with a lat strain. All right, well, screw me, I guess. But Devin Williams hasn't been good either. And that's the biggest story here. Without throwing a pitch, he made history for the Yankees though. Good history, I guess. I mean, it's debatable. Being a big reason as to why they no longer have the zero facial hair policy, or at least a less strict version of it. Williams has had a beard for years before joining the Yankees. He clearly was so in favor of having a beard. He didn't shave it all off season, despite getting traded pretty early on. He knew he was a Yankee for a long time and just didn't shave it. He waited. He even showed up to Yankee spring training with the beard before shaving it. I mean, he took it as far as he could possibly take it. And after shaving, he spoke to the Yankees about how much more comfortable he was with a beard. And the team decided it was time to become a little more lenient on the rule. You still can't have long hair or a crazy beard. It has to be well-groomed, but Yankees are allowed to have beards now. Would have been nice for Devin to have that rule changed about two days earlier, but whatever. Actually, though, it's not whatever. He's been awful to start the year. His first outing came on opening day against his old team. Yankees were up four to one, and he immediately loaded the bases. Base hit, double, walk, a fly ball brings home the Brewers' second run of the game before Williams did lock in and struck out the next two guys to end the game. Yankees gave him a week off after this, and his next outing was much better in a blowout game. But still, he did walk a hitter, but other than that, weak contact and a strikeout. But his next couple of outings have been bad. Two days later, now in a high leverage spot against the Pirates, trying to keep a game tied in the 11th inning, he failed. Shot off the bat of Tommy Fan for a walk off. He slapped that shit. He loves slapping shit. Well, in comes Devin Williams for a non-save opportunity now. Not really high leverage. It was four to nothing Yankees over a Detroit Tigers offense that hadn't done anything all game. And he basically almost more or less copied that playoff meltdown against the Mets. Spencer Torkelson works a nine-pitch at-bat for a walk. He was down 0-2 right away, but walked him. Although in classic Devin Williams fashion, he still has his strikeout stuff. I mean, whether he's tipping his pitches or not, he can still get strikeouts. He got one in that Mets game. He's still striking guys out here. He gets two Tigers in a row that way. You're thinking, okay, Torkelson worked a good at-bat, but that's it. Williams looks good, but then Javier Baez smacks a base hit to right. Then he does the exact same thing he did to Spencer Torkelson, now to Sidney Sweeney's brother. 0-2 count before walking him. The second pitch to Zach McKinstry. A changeup gets spiked in the dirt and ricochets off to the Lions stadium. Across the street, a run scores. Two pitches later, McKinstry doesn't hit the ball hard, but he hits it well enough for a two-run single. The throw for some reason comes home, so McKinstry goes to second. The Tigers go from two outs down four nothing to one hit away from tying this game. Williams gets taken out and it's Mark Leiter Jr. who gets the final out. Williams is obviously not himself. You can tell that by just watching him and he said so after this game. That he hasn't felt 100% like himself up to this point. He feels fine, he just needs better reps and execution. You gotta wonder if maybe it's a pitch tipping issue still. Former big leaguer Trevor Ploof thinks that's what's going on. He spoke about it on the Baseball Today podcast. As a catcher giving his target. When Devin Williams threw a changeup, his glove was completely just dead center. Like he was saying, okay, this is just throw it here, let it move how it moves. And it was so blatantly obvious. Anytime he moved off the center of the plate, it was a fastball. And now I can see that from home because I see him setting up and we have the view right behind the pitcher. But like if I can see from home, like the first base coach might be able to see it. The third base coach might be able to see it. Somebody in the dugout might be able to see it. And this wouldn't be the first time we talked about Devin Williams like tipping. Even there were there was like two pitches where he set up in the middle and they were fastballs. But if I can say to myself, hey, if he sets up anywhere off the middle, I know it's not a changeup. I mean, a two pitch guy like that's all you got. That's all the information you really have to have. Williams is someone who essentially only has two pitches, fastball changeup. Without any sort of edge or signs, you already have a 50-50 chance of guessing the pitch. And then when there are some signs, it looks like the Yankees have been giving off. Potentially, it only makes it more simple for the hitters. It's not a known fact that Tigers or these other teams see him and or Austin Wells, the catcher tipping. But this could be a thing and a continuation of last year's wildcard mess, regardless of why exactly he's been so shaky. It doesn't really seem like Williams is that far away from being great again, though, which is how fascinating this can be. A lot of times the difference between being great and awful isn't all that much. The little things really do go the longest of ways. Now it's been four games way too early to panic. I don't think it's panic time at all yet. But the worrisome thing is the fact that as good as relievers can be, it's also the most wishy washy position in baseball, maybe in all of sports. It happens all the time. Guys are good one year, they're great one year, virtually unhittable one year and then unplayable the next. The difference with Devin Williams is the fact that he was, again, not just great for five years in a row, the best reliever in the game for that long. It's not a fluke. And that talent doesn't just disappear. He still has the ability to be the best reliever in baseball. But you can't ignore the fact this has been a thing dating back to how last season ended. We also haven't seen a full year of Devin Williams in New York yet. Up until now, he spent his entire career in Milwaukee. And there's a big difference between Milwaukee and New York City. In Milwaukee, you struggle. Yeah, they might get mad, but then they drink, they forget about it the next day. In New York, you struggle. You have Nick Turrell screaming in your face. Like I really do feel based on the person that matters. She like that can take a toll on you mentally if you let it and confidence is so key in anything you do in life, let alone a big league pitcher for a big market franchise. This definitely is a big test for Williams, probably the biggest test of his entire career. So it'll be interesting to see how he handles this. And you know what it might be the beard after last year's debacle, he needed to shave the beard actually kind of like a reset period, then let it fully grow back. And when it does, because it hasn't yet, he can get back to his prime for but I don't know, I personally think he'll find his way. He still has the best strikeout stuff in the game for a reliever even through these struggles. So he can't be that far off, but he is broken. The Mets did that. And now it's a Yankee mess. They need to clean up and fix. Let me know your thoughts and thank you for watching.