Brewers GM Matt Arnold Keeping Options Open On Potential Devin Williams Trade

[Brock Beauchamp]

This is a chorus Brewers fans are quite familiar with over the past few years: their soon-to-be free agent closer may be traded.

In the Brewers' after-season press conference, General Manager Matt Arnold talks briefly about trade rumors surrounding closer Devin Williams. The right-handed reliever is entering his final season of team control in 2025 and the Brewers hold a $10.5 million option they will surely accept.

Williams has been almost unbelievably good the past three seasons, posting a 1.66 ERA over 141 innings pitched while striking out over 14 batters per nine innings. To fans, this will surely bring back bad memories of the Josh Hader trade in 2022, which sent the lefty to the San Diego Padres mid-season.

 

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[TURBO]

Which is 100% why he has to be traded this off season, not at next season's deadline.

If he starts the year with us, I think he ends the year with us, unless things have gone horribly wrong at the deadline, and we trade him because we are out of the playoff hunt.

[Madhawk23]

I actually think the closers market is much better at the trade deadline than it is in the offseason.  But, if we don't trade him this winter - then the chances of us trading him in July aren't great either as I think we'd all expect this team to be somewhere in the playoff hunt next season and there's now way Mark A and this front office are going to go through another Josh Hader situation from a couple of years ago.