Devin Williams Has Two Cutters Now--But Still No Interest In Pitching When It Doesn't Matter

Last year, Devin Williams changed the shape of his cutter. It's always been a purely supplemental pitch for him, but it's not without some value--especially for a pitcher who specializes in a pitch (that devastating screwball, which he calls a changeup and the world labels "The Airbender") that works best when hitters chase it outside the zone. The thing was, prior to 2023, his cutter (and his slider, two offerings that often merged into one another) was more like a half-hearted breaking ball than a variant of his fastball. As the former, it didn't get him whiffs, it didn't get him ground balls, and it didn't do much to set up the screwball.

Thus, Williams firmed it up, once and for all, and he got the pitch on plane with his four-seamer. It became an offering that could buzz in on the hands of left-handed batters, forcing them into weak contact on the ground and making them more likely to flail if he followed it up with the airbender.

"That was me refining the shape that I wanted—to get that shape more consistently," Williams said Friday, inside the Brewers' clubhouse at their spring training complex in Maryvale. "I’m feeling really comfortable with it now. I kind of even have two versions of that pitch now."

It's funny to hear him put it that way, because when you first glimpse the movement profiles prior to 2023 and in 2023, it looks like the opposite happened. It looks like he went from two flavors of cutter to one. In reality, though, he threw the cutter so rarely and so ineffectually before 2023 that he essentially had no cutter. It was a pitch that got into the stew with his slider, and neither came out as anything with very much savor to it at all.

In 2023, what you see is a true cutter, with ample ride to make lefties think four-seamer, swing for the four-seamer, and get eaten alive by a pitch four or five inches further up their bat handle than the four-seamer. Williams confirmed that it was the pitch he's gaining more feel for and more confidence in with which he sawed off Christian Yelich in a sim game earlier this week.

"Yeah, that was a cutter," Williams said, with a trace of satisfaction in having overpowered his fellow superstar.

In Devin’s live, Yelich swung first pitch in his first AB. “You don’t want to see more?”

Then egged him on for one more AB vs Yeli. Here it is. pic.twitter.com/gmP9g4rsZk

— Dominic Cotroneo (@Dom_Cotroneo) February 27, 2024

Just as importantly, though, we need to clarify: Williams meant he has two versions of the cutter now. Following some offseason work on it, he's capable of creating more depth on the pitch, as well as throwing the 90-MPH, fastball-plane version we saw most often in 2023. When he moved from sim games to Cactus League showdowns with the Dodgers on Saturday, that was on full display.

Four whiffs on changeups from Devin, one on the fastball too.

Also, that was the most I could remember seeing Devin throw the cutter. And some depth to it too.

— Dominic Cotroneo (@Dom_Cotroneo) March 2, 2024

It's pretty safe to say that we'll see more of that pitch in 2024--at least early on. Curiously, though, as each of the past four seasons have progressed, Williams has become more dependent on his screwball. Within seasons, perhaps because of the difficulty of working on things between outings as a reliever and the need to lean on what he trusts most, Williams has become more Airbender-dependent.

"I don't really think that has anything to do with it," Williams said, pushing back on the suggestion that a lack of side work would be part of the cause. "It’s just who I’m facing, and if I think that’s the right pitch in that situation. Pitch to pitch, hitter to hitter."

Besides, Williams isn't looking for more regular work. On the contrary, after 2023 saw Craig Counsell use him more tactically and more sparingly than ever (leading to one of the highest average Leverage Indexes for any reliever in a season in baseball history), Williams wants to do the same thing this year.

"I prefer to be in when it matters. I don’t really like to get in in games where the outcome’s basically been decided," Williams said.

One of the biggest hurdles to consistent and long-lasting success for relievers is the fact that they rarely have the privilege of knowing whether or not they'll pitch on a given day, even as much as halfway through the game. Working a bit more, albeit on a more regimented schedule, would be one way to solve that problem, but Williams prefers to be reserved for (and then weaponized in) the huge moments.

"There’s definitely times where you need [to get into a game for some work], if it gets to a week, eight, nine days, you should get back in there, because that’s just a long time to not be on the mound," Williams said. But: "I liked how Counsell would manage that, because I was available more often. Say I had just thrown in a game to get in there. And then I throw again the next day in a save situation. Now, that’s two in a row. And really, only one of those mattered. Versus, had I not thrown that game, then I was available for that save opportunity, or a tie game, whatever it might be, And then that’s only day two. I could potentially go three in a row. I’ve done that a few times over the past couple years. I think that keeps me fresh for games that I can actually have a bigger impact on."

There are obvious drawbacks to that approach. Pitching on consecutive days makes you worse, both within that game and over the following day or two. Doing so consistently increases injury risk. Thus, a manager whose closer wants to be used only in big moments has to have a pretty high threshold for what constitutes a big moment. Otherwise, the closer will burn out or break. Williams himself has had that issue once already in his career.

He also only got 176 outs (58 2/3 innings) last season. In a perfect world, your best pitcher (on a batter-for-batter basis) gets more of your outs than that. Williams's new manager, Pat Murphy, grazed that subject in talking about the value of guys like Bryse Wilson, who might soak up a lot of innings in relief for the Brewers this year. Williams's limitations in terms of availability put pressure on his teammates.

If it works as well as it did in 2023, though, it will be hard to argue with the approach. Williams has honed a truer three-pitch mix, and like many of his cohort, he's manipulating one of those offerings to make it work in multiple ways, depending on situation and matchup. He remains committed to a narrower but nastier role than those filled by any previous generation of closers. It's up to the rest of the pitching staff to ensure that they get him the ball with the right frequency, but once he gets it, he's as poised to dominate as ever.

Research assistance provided by TruMedia.