Williams demoted from Yankees closer role

[edfunderburk]

Devin Williams, Yankees: One of the most intriguing trades of the offseason was the Brewers’ mega-closer Williams to the Yankees. One month in, his ERA is 11.25 and he’s already lost the closer’s role.

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/devin-williams-removed-as-yankees-closer?partnerId=it-20250428-13353017-mlb-1-A&utm_id=it-20250428-13353017-mlb-1-A&lctg=138230048

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25191043-yankees-remove-devin-williams-closer-replaced-luke-weaver-aaron-boone-says?utm_source=br_newsletter&lid=gxlkgk0dtw4t

[CheezWizHed]

My first impression of hearing the news of Williams going to NYY was wondering if he'd manage the pressure.  He was showing signs of struggling with us and doing that in the pressure cooker of NY just makes everything harder. 

[AKCheesehead]

4 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

My first impression of hearing the news of Williams going to NYY was wondering if he'd manage the pressure.  He was showing signs of struggling with us and doing that in the pressure cooker of NY just makes everything harder. 

I thought that as well.  I honestly was a bit surprised NY traded for him for that reason, as I'd think they studied Devin extensively prior to the trade.  His struggles there probably come as no shock to any of us who watched him with the Brew Crew. 

Someone mentioned a Jeffress-esque situation.  It's early to call for that, but it would be compelling.

[homer]

That's too bad. Hope he can figure it out.

[MilwaukeeBeers]

Selfishly I am a bit thankful he is not outright dominant like he was here. From personal accounts I know he seemed to have quite an... ego, and it is getting checked right now. Not to mention if he was normal Devin NY wins that trade by a landslide. Being organ donors for big markets is never fun but it is more palatable when you don't get taken to the woodshed in the transaction.

[Frisbee Slider]

The organ donor analogy almost never works though. Who was the last player to leave Milwaukee and after their final year of arbitration continued elite level of production?

It’s possible I’m forgetting people but the big markets usually haven’t fleeced us in recent memory.

[MilwaukeeBeers]

6 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

The organ donor analogy almost never works though. Who was the last player to leave Milwaukee and after their final year of arbitration continued elite level of production?

It’s possible I’m forgetting people but the big markets usually haven’t fleeced us in recent memory.

Yes totally agree. That is why I said it makes losing players palatable. Still sucks to lose talent and fan favorites because we cannot compete financially or fit them in the "budget" regardless of how they perform after. 

 

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, Frisbee Slider said:

The organ donor analogy almost never works though. Who was the last player to leave Milwaukee and after their final year of arbitration continued elite level of production?

It’s possible I’m forgetting people but the big markets usually haven’t fleeced us in recent memory.

I know this was rhetorical, but...who was it? Prince was a stud until the injury(and his contract insured).

Burnes obviously last year and now this year and...well, I guess Hader.

 

Cortes was a very good starting pitcher. One is terrible, the other is hurt. Hopefully Durbin becomes someone.

[Frisbee Slider]

32 minutes ago, BrewerFan said:

I know this was rhetorical, but...who was it? Prince was a stud until the injury(and his contract insured).

Prince did not live up to his free agent contract. We all loved him but we were correct to not resign him.

2024 was last arbitration year for Burnes. He was very good. This is Burnes first ‘free agent’ year and he has been replacement level through five starts. We expect improvement but Milwaukee likely got the best years from Burnes.

Hader has alternated between good and bad since leaving Milwaukee. Are we that mad we chose not to pay $19 million for Hader’s 3.80 ERA in 2024?

There are legitimate grievances experienced by small market teams but being saddled with bloated contracts for declining talent is one area I am less concerned about.

 

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Prince did not live up to his free agent contract. We all loved him but we were correct to not resign him.

I never said we should have signed him. I very clearly said;

1 hour ago, BrewerFan said:

I know this was rhetorical, but...who was it? Prince was a stud until the injury(and his contract insured).

So...that's not me saying we were NOT correct to not re-sign him, but he was very good and that didn't end up being a bad deal. 
 

Prince played every game the next two years, hit 69 HRs, .295/.387/.491 slash line. That's elite. 

Then was injured, came back, played another 158 games, hit .305/.378/.463 ....suffered a fluke injury and the Rangers didn't have to eat that contract as it was insured. He continued to perform at an elite level. 

 

1 hour ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Hader has alternated between good and bad since leaving Milwaukee. Are we that mad we chose not to pay $19 million for Hader’s 3.80 ERA in 2024?

Again...no, though...you're kinda ignoring the .69 ERA and he's been pretty dominant on balance, but...am I mad we didn't re-sign him?

 

When did emotions come into this? It was just answering the question, there really wasn't a choice in signing Burnes or Prince or Hader or Adames...there likely won't be one in 9 years when Chourio is 30 and HE likely walks(though that may be the one exception...who knows). 

All I did was answer this question literally;

3 hours ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Who was the last player to leave Milwaukee and after their final year of arbitration continued elite level of production?

 

That's it. Who has been good. Not "are we mad we didn't pay Hader 19M a year." I...don't know how you jumped to that...

Quote

There are legitimate grievances experienced by small market teams but being saddled with bloated contracts for declining talent is one area I am less concerned about.

....?

[Fear The Chorizo]

I honestly think if you don't get an early long term extension with a bonafide stud prearbitration (Chourio, Braun, etc), small market teams are almost always better off trading away players the offseason before they reach free agency...I think at times it's ok to hang onto position players until their free agent year (adames, fielder) and just recoup the comp pick for them declining the option.  For really good pitchers, I think it's better to trade them ahead if time to replenish the cupboard (Hader, Devin, Burnes) rather than risking injury that last year.

Look at the Dodgers' current IL pitching staff's payroll - the Brewers can't take that financial risk to have a bunch of pricey veteran arms on the roster only to see them cashing checks to be injured.  You get those mid to late 20's years of prime production of their arms before moving on from them and having to pay crazy money to watch them get injured or regress.  Cortes and Woodruff are among the highest paid Brewers' pitchers....enough said

[BrewerFan]

28 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

I honestly think if you don't get an early long term extension with a bonafide stud prearbitration (Chourio, Braun, etc), small market teams are almost always better off trading away players the offseason before they reach free agency...I think at times it's ok to hang onto position players until their free agent year (adames, fielder) and just recoup the comp pick for them declining the option.  For really good pitchers, I think it's better to trade them ahead if time to replenish the cupboard (Hader, Devin, Burnes) rather than risking injury that last year.

Look at the Dodgers' current IL pitching staff's payroll - the Brewers can't take that financial risk to have a bunch of pricey veteran arms on the roster only to see them cashing checks to be injured.  You get those mid to late 20's years of prime production of their arms before moving on from them and having to pay crazy money to watch them get injured or regress.  Cortes and Woodruff are among the highest paid Brewers' pitchers....enough said

I agree... at least with regard to the Brewers and virtually all the moves they've made. I thought a Corbin Burnes extension made sense for Baltimore...but you said "almost always," so perhaps that would have been an exception. 

I hope...however this whole TV deal situation plays out, it does, as the Brewers have said, end up being better for the Brewers in the long run....but we're never going to be able to swim in the same circles barring some massive shift in the economics of Baseball or some insanely wealthy Cohen like guy buying the team and deciding he doesn't care how much he loses. And even then, even assuming we have the money to keep Hader. Who is our catcher?

The Padres have traded away a lineup of All-Stars, a rotation of aces and a bullpen of closers to spend more and to have...uninspiring results. The next big deals I hope the Brewers are budgeting for are Turang(not because of the start, I've just always thought he was a poor man's Turner) and then Pratt, Made, maybe Quero. 

I'm only half serious, but those are the type of contracts the Brewers should roll the dice on. Young players who would be hitting FA in their early 30s. The John Hart special. 

 

[Jopal78]

Devin Williams is soft, always had been. His “Dave” persona he had to use to psyche himself up to be aggressive for example.

Talking to the press about the difficultly in focusing on his job after Hader got traded is another. 

Not a surprise at all he struggled under the bright lights of NYC, he seemingly couldn’t handle pressure of the playoffs either.  
 

It’s funny though,  April isnt even over yet, and both sides are likely disappointed  in the trade. 

[Outlander]

It sure looks like the Brewers timing to trade Williams was correct, will probably never know but do wonder what other offers were out there. Hopefully not too much value was put on Cortes and it was mainly to match salaries because his injury history was obvious from the start. Out of everybody Durbin should accumulate the most WAR from here on out but still will wonder what other opportunites were available.

[CheezWizHed]

14 hours ago, AKCheesehead said:

I thought that as well.  I honestly was a bit surprised NY traded for him for that reason, as I'd think they studied Devin extensively prior to the trade.  His struggles there probably come as no shock to any of us who watched him with the Brew Crew. 

Someone mentioned a Jeffress-esque situation.  It's early to call for that, but it would be compelling.

I know I've mentioned the JJ or KROD analogy in the past for Devin, but... I'm thinking we just move on honestly.  He didn't perform well in pressure situations (50/50?). 

[narwhalattack]

With most trades, I find that over time I’m not as upset about the loss itself. I’m often more underwhelmed by the return for whatever/whoever we trade. We trade away draft capital and prospects for relief help and we end up with Norris and Claudio- neither of whom did enough to justify what we had to give up for them. We trade Burnes and Williams at the height of their success… and end up with what is amounting to be either roster fillers or victims of the injury gods. 
 

In most cases the guys we trade away don’t amount to much after the trade, but more often than not the guys we receive don’t amount to much either. Freddy and Contreras are the two exceptions I can think of in recent history.

[Jopal78]

25 minutes ago, narwhalattack said:

With most trades, I find that over time I’m not as upset about the loss itself. I’m often more underwhelmed by the return for whatever/whoever we trade. We trade away draft capital and prospects for relief help and we end up with Norris and Claudio- neither of whom did enough to justify what we had to give up for them. We trade Burnes and Williams at the height of their success… and end up with what is amounting to be either roster fillers or victims of the injury gods. 
 

In most cases the guys we trade away don’t amount to much after the trade, but more often than not the guys we receive don’t amount to much either. Freddy and Contreras are the two exceptions I can think of in recent history.

I don’t know about that, they’ve acquired some terrific players in trades you’re just not thinking of them. What I do thinks true is that until fairly recently the Brewers didn’t have a lot of desirable players heading to free agency where there was urgency to trade them away before losing them for nothing: 

Recent successes include:

Corey Knebel (Gallardo) was an All Star for Milwaukee 

Hader, Adrian Houser (Gomez) played significant roles for the Brewers. Not to mention Domingo Santana and Brett Phillips 

Lewis Brinson (Lucroy) was flipped as part of the package for Yelich.

 

[narwhalattack]

20 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

I don’t know about that, they’ve acquired some terrific players in trades you’re just not thinking of them. What I do thinks true is that until fairly recently the Brewers didn’t have a lot of desirable players heading to free agency where there was urgency to trade them away before losing them for nothing: 

Recent successes include:

Corey Knebel (Gallardo) was an All Star for Milwaukee 

Hader, Adrian Houser (Gomez) played significant roles for the Brewers. Not to mention Domingo Santana and Brett Phillips 

Lewis Brinson (Lucroy) was flipped as part of the package for Yelich.

 

Wow, those are some names I haven’t thought about in quite some time. While I wouldn’t say that Brett Phillips was successful here (played a total of 52 games for Milwaukee), a lot of these names were a walk down memory lane 😆

[Thurston Fluff]

While it isn't pretty now, it's a bit early to say this is who he's going to be going forward. I'm also not so sure it's due to the spotlight in NY. Elite closers struggle, get demoted and work their way back up on a fairly regular basis. I don't think Hader got demoted but he struggled for stretches when he could have been. He turn it around and looks Harder like. Taylor Rogers was horrible here and has and ERA+ over 100 ever since. Including 161 last season and is at 223 so far this season. Sometimes they become dominant again sometimes they don't get back to elite but are still effective. Even if he never returns to the best of the best it doesn't mean he won't be an effective high level reliever ever again.

[torts]

We won the trade

 

Too soon?

[Frisbee Slider]

10 hours ago, torts said:

We won the trade

 

Too soon?

Never too soon. 🙂

-0.7 WAR for Williams

-0.3 WAR for Cortes

0 WAR Durbin

Brewers winning or we both are losing? 🤷‍♂️

[TURBO]

4 hours ago, Frisbee Slider said:

... or we both are losing? 🤷‍♂️

This.

[Brian]

On 4/29/2025 at 7:06 AM, Jopal78 said:

Devin Williams is soft, always had been. His “Dave” persona he had to use to psyche himself up to be aggressive for example.

Talking to the press about the difficultly in focusing on his job after Hader got traded is another. 

Not a surprise at all he struggled under the bright lights of NYC, he seemingly couldn’t handle pressure of the playoffs either.  
 

It’s funny though,  April isnt even over yet, and both sides are likely disappointed  in the trade. 

I couldn't have said it any better.  Devin Williams is a deva just like Aaron Rodgers is and we got the better end of the deal even though looking only slight but with more potential being that Durbin just turned 25. Batting .263 now.