Yankees acquire Devin Williams from Brewers

Yankees acquire Devin Williams from Brewers

The New York Yankees have acquired closer Devin Williams from the Milwaukee Brewers in a three-player trade, ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan was among the first to report Friday.

The return going back to Milwaukee will be left-handed starter Nestor Cortes and second baseman Caleb Durbin, a former Arizona Fall League Breakout Player of the Year who was expected to start with New York heading into 2025.

Even though he had an infamous blunder in series-deciding Game 3 of the NL Wild Card against the New York Mets, Williams is still one of the most dominant relievers in MLB. Since the start of 2022, Williams has led all relievers in ERA (1.66) while ranking in the top-5 in strikeout rate (39.5 K%), FIP (2.29) and xFIP (2.55).

He was limited to just 22 games last year due to injury. He sported a 1.25 ERA, 2.06 FIP with 14 saves and 28 strikeouts in 21.2 innings (22 games). The two-time All-Star possesses one of the most elite put-out pitches in baseball with a changeup that’s generated at least a 43.0 percent whiff rate and 36.0 strikeout rate in each of the last five seasons.

Williams will join a strong New York bullpen, where Luke Weaver emerged as another dominant, reliable back-end arm toward the tail-end of 2024. They are also flanked by Jonathan Loaisiga, Ian Hamilton, Jake Cousins and Mark Leiter Jr., who struggled after arriving post-deadline.

This is a great price for New York. Cortes has fizzled out the last two seasons and there is still plenty of unknown about Durbin, who can play all around the diamond with great bat-to-ball skills. Both Cortes and Williams were entering the last year of their contract and both player were expected to have similar deals in arbitration–give or take a few hundred thousand–per Spotrac’s projections.

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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.

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