Devin Williams Has Been Nothing Short Of a Disaster As The Yankees Closer And Needs To Relinquish His Role To Luke Weaver Immediately

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Baseball is hilarious. Something you think that's a sure thing never actually is. Going into the 2025 season most people saw pairing two time All Star Devin Williams with Luke Weaver as a monster move to create the best 1-2 punch in terms of high leverage, late inning relievers in the game. 

Devin Williams seems hellbent on derailing that plan. 

We're still in the month of April and Williams has surrendered 10 earned runs already. To put that number in perspective, he only gave up 3 last year (21.2 IP) and 10 in 2023 (58.2). He gave up 10 HITS all together in 2024. In four of his ten outings he's given up an earned run. He's only had two appearances where he didn't allow a baserunner. In his last four innings, which includes 21 batters faced, he's only struck out one batter. Absolutely nothing is coming easy for him and he's getting killed as a result. 

Last night as he blew another save and didn't record a single out against the Blue Jays, the Bronx faithful chanted "We Want Weaver" in reference to beloved reliever and last year's postseason closer extraordinaire Luke Weaver, who has picked up right where he left off in 2024—13 innings pitched, zero runs allowed. Williams was asked about this after the game and gave this response. 

Not a great answer. All he had to say was "I need to be better at my job" but instead gave that weird response which inadvertently shows he does hear that noise and is bothered by it. That quote just continues what's been a brutal beginning for Williams in pinstripes. Reminder, this is the guy who forced the Yankees hand in amending their beard policy. In exchange he's become a worse version of anything Clay Holmes ever showed as the team's closer. Make him shave the beard until that ERA gets below 4 at least. 

While this all seems bad, and don't get me wrong it's not great, I'm not here to tell you the sky is falling. Maybe a couple years ago I do that, but I've got a few more years under my built and some grey hair to remind me that the baseball season is so fucking long. 

Look at the calendar. This is happening in April. Not September. Not October. Williams is notoriously a slow starter, but obviously not like this. Luke Weaver should and I believe will be slotted in as the team's closer very shortly, hopefully by the team's doubleheader on Sunday. Boone kinda hinted at that here. 

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There's really no choice here with how bad Williams has looked. Having an easy solution in Luke Weaver makes all of this absorbable. If they had moved on from Weaver to give Williams a runway that would be a fucking disaster. Also it's worth noting that the team is in first place despite this shitshow. Things could be a whole lot worse. 

For now Williams has to simply regain his confidence. He goes out there looking helpless on the mound and you cannot have that from your closer. Move him to a lower leverage spot for now to get his rhythm back. Weaver and Cruz can both get a bump in the pecking order for now. Eventually Williams will figure this out. Do I have anything of substance to back that up with other than his track record and hope? Nope, but if he doesn't he'll go down as another star who couldn't handle New York. I'll be rooting for the former to happen for my mental health.