From Bryan Hoch:
The Yankees continue to preach patience with Devin Williams, voicing confidence that he will settle in to replicate his excellent track record as a two-time National League Reliever of the Year.
It hasn’t happened yet. Williams blew a ninth-inning lead and was booed off the Yankee Stadium mound, with Alejandro Kirk’s two-run double providing the margin of victory in the Yankees’ 4-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Friday evening.
“Nothing’s working right now,” Williams said. “… I wish there was an easy answer, but I’m not really sure. It’s not a good feeling, not to be able to get the job done for the team. They put us in a great position to win there, and I couldn’t get it done today.”
The implosion marked Williams’ first blown save in five chances as a Yankee. But he has struggled in several other outings, including coughing up a four-run lead against the Rays last Saturday in Tampa.
This is strange territory for Williams. A two-time NL All-Star (2022, ’23), the 30-year-old right-hander known for his “Airbender” changeup fashioned a razor-thin 1.83 ERA across 241 appearances with the Brewers from 2019-24, saving 68 games.
But the Yankees, who acquired Williams in a December swap for left-hander Nestor Cortes and infielder Caleb Durbin, haven’t seen anything close to that performance yet.
I mean, come the fuck on, right? Here’s the craziest thing to me. Since he sucked in the very first game of the season, the fans have never even gotten the chance to warm up to Williams. There is NO positive sentiment for him. So he’s already behind with the fans BEFORE he goes out and sucks. It’s just amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it, to have an All-Star addition to the team become hated, like, RIGHT AWAY. But what can you do when the guy comes out and simply SUCKS almost every time he comes into a game?
The one thing he could hang his hat on before this was that his terrible outings all came in non-save situations, but now he was terrible in a save situation, as well, so there’s NOTHING to be said for this guy.
The silver lining that I’m holding on to is that it allows the Yankees to make the move to bring Luke Weaver back as the closer of the team. The Guardians have already swapped out THEIR All-Star closer, Emmanuel Clase (who, like Williams, had a very rough postseason last year, seemingly blowing the game every time he was brought into games in the playoffs) with their excellent setup guy, Cade Smith, and similarly, the Yankees HAVE to make that move themselves, swapping Williams and Weaver. The idea that they just lost a game they were leading 2-1 in the ninth inning withOUT using their best reliever is simply maddening.
Beyond that, the offense was terribly unlucky tonight, but I don’t mind it that much. They all kept working, and if they have another similar game in the future, they’ll likely score a lot more than two runs. There are games where the offense worries me, but this isn’t one of them. I don’t like Grisham in the leadoff spot, though. I think Rice is just too good of an on-base guy to not use him there.
Belli showed something tonight, and really, the bottom of the lineup wasn’t terrible.
Cookie was great, and most of the bullpen was good. Tim Hill giving up a homer to Vladdy is meaningless. Hamilton and Cruz were great. The Yankees SHOULD have won this one, but Williams was just mind-numbingly awful. It’s a shame.
He, of course, gets the featured image, reacting to the double that lost the game (and drove him out of the game).
Oh great, just what this team needed, a doubleheader.
Luckily, they have an off day coming, so this presumably shouldn’t fuck up the rotation, right? Or am I mistaken and they WILL need a sixth starter? It depends on when the off day hits.
Let me do the math. Okay…
SUNDAY – Fried/Schmidt
MONDAY – Warren
TUESDAY – Rodon
WEDNESDAY – Carrasco
THURSDAY – Off day
Okay, so it should all work out. Phew.
Weird I haven’t seen or heard any rain all morning.
Yeah, it’s weird.
If they hadn’t blown the Friday game, I’d be okay with calling this, but not now. Some drizzle here in LoHud. How much different down in the Bronx?
Judging by downtown they could’ve got the game in easy
Boone weighing Williams’ closer role, but ‘still expecting great things’.
https://www.mlb.com/news/aaron-boone-talks-devin-williams-yankees-closer-situation
Sounds like he’s finally being demoted.
But yeah, I bet he’ll just need, like, one or two good lower leverage performances before he’s right back into the closer’s spot.
It’s raining hard in LA so maybe they were just being cautious
What would the Dodgers do?
Beside increasing payroll for roster depth. That’s off the table.
While My Umbrella Gently Weeps.
It’s raining now so they were right to cancel.
Yep, 6-hours later, and my umbrella no longer weeps.
DJ LeMahieu hits it sharply off Jack Mahoney and legs out an infield single!
LeMahieu is 1-for-1 in his third rehab game. In his total rehab assignment, LeMahieu is 4-for-6 thus far.
https://x.com/SOMPatriots/status/1916255803524186388
The O’s lose game 1, and the Bosox lose game 1.
So far, very nice.
George Lombard Jr.: 3-for-4, 2B (3), RBI, 2 R, BB .305/.481/.441 in 81 PA (3 doubles, 1 triple, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 16 R, 9-for-11 SB, 22.2% BB, 19.8% K). And he is still a teenager.
Totally pumped about him.
He’s about where Volpe was at age 20. Volpe OPSed over 1000 in A ball. At age 21 in AA Volpe was 820 and in AAA he only OPSed 718 which is why it’s no surprise that Volpe is not quite a major league hitter. Let’s see what Lombard does next year. Remember how excited some of us were at Montero?
Yeah, but Montero also had really good reason to be excited about, as he looked good. Guys who look good early generally work out. Some don’t, but I don’t think it’s a reason to not get excited about guys. You should just obviously always temper ANYthing with, “Well, this might not work out.”
Eugenio Perez, 4 HR’s. Great night for him.
Of course, it is Eugenio Suarez. Doh!
Nice April.
RHP Bryce Cunningham (W, 3-1): 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K
2.63 ERA (24 IP, 19 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 1 HR, 4 BB, 30 K). Cunningham has been brilliant in three of his four starts. In the other start, he allowed five runs in the first inning before settling in and providing the team with six innings. The 6’5″ 22-year-old is showing off impressive command/control thus far. He walked 71 batters in 160 college innings, so is this a hot stretch, or has something clicked in the Yankees Pitching Lab?
https://tomkosensky.com/
Cautiously optimistic!
Tampa Herring 3-0 0.39 era 28k/23.1ip
Did the mutts outsmart Cash, Boone and Blake on Holmes who has 2.64 era as a starter?
I don’t think they had the money to re-sign him either way.
At this point last season Holmes ERA was 0.00 and stayed there for another month. So I’d wait before admitting anything.
Lo hit 97 in a rehab inning yesterday
Big news – May 4 is Giancarlo Stanton Bobble Head Doll giveaway. Touch the doll on its head and it gets injured.
Back in 2018 they picked Judge for the May 4 Jedi bobblehead promotion. Unfortunately the doll becomes vulnerable to force-choking in October.
Williams is officially out as the closer. I’ll give Boone this much, until Friday night, he hadn’t actually blown a save, so that was SOMEthing Boone could hang his hat on.
i know we got spoiled for awhile but after chapman, hughes and williams it would be nice to catch a break