Breaking news: Former Mets closer sends an honest message to Devin Williams amid struggles.
All-Star closer Devin Williams’ New York Yankees stay is already a fiasco, and the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year may not be far from losing his chokehold on the ninth inning. During Friday’s startling 4-2 defeat to the Toronto Blue Jays, Williams was jeered by Yankees fans who had already had enough of the electrifying reliever. Williams is tied for the seventh-worst bWAR of any pitcher going into Sunday after giving up 12 runs (10 earned) in eight innings.
Williams received a clear lesson from former All-Star closer AJ Ramos: alter your strategy and reclaim your self-assurance. On MLB Network Radio, Ramos clarified, “You have to go in there and give them your best stuff and say, ‘Whatever happens, happens, but I am giving you my best stuff.’?”
“‘I’m not hoping to succeed. I’m knowing that if I throw my best stuff and I execute, that you’re not going to touch me,'” Ramos continued, adding that Williams must tell himself. Things have gone wrong quickly for Williams, who had a stellar 1.70 ERA and 9.0 bWAR with the Milwaukee Brewers from 2020–24. Since his 36-pitch Opening Day debut against the same Brewers, he has struggled with command.
When Ramos remarked, “You can tell that he doesn’t feel good,” Ramos, who pitched for the crosstown Mets from 2017 to 2018, is familiar with New York. For the Miami Marlins from 2015–16, he had highs like saving 72 games with a 2.55 ERA and lows like losing his rhythm in the ninth inning. Ramos pitched 38.2 innings with a 5.59 ERA before suffering a shoulder injury that interrupted his Queens career, so he never had an opportunity to turn things around in New York. Given the growing clamor for the Yankees to bench Williams, we’ll see whether he regains his previous level of performance.
