Yankees manager Aaron Boone still has Devin Williams' back after closer's latest meltdown

The questions,  11 in all, directed toward Aaron Boone were about Devin Williams.

What’s wrong with the two-time All-Star? Can he return to being the dominant closer that those affiliated with the Yankees believed was acquired in December?

Instead of laying out an actual plan, the manager repeatedly expressed his belief in the 30-year-old righthander.

“I feel like physically he’s got all the stuff to still be an elite closer,” Boone said shortly after the Yankees postponed Saturday’s game against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium  because of inclement weather. 

In the previous five seasons, Williams recorded ERAs of 0.33, 2.50, 1.93, 1.50 and 1.25, striking out 361 and allowing only 111 hits in 222 innings. He was acquired from Milwaukee for lefthander Nestor Cortes and prospect Caleb Durbin to be one-half of the late-innings shutdown tandem with Luke Weaver, but the first month of his Yankees career has not been especially smooth.

Take, for instance, Friday night’s ninth-inning meltdown in a 4-2 loss to the Blue Jays.

With the Yankees leading 2-1, Williams surrendered a leadoff single by George Springer   and hit Andres Gimenez in the thigh with a fastball. The next batter, Alejandro Kirk, hammered a double over the head of centerfielder Trent Grisham that drove in both runners. That brought an end to Williams’ outing as he was replaced by Mark Leiter Jr.

Williams left the mound to chants of “we want Weaver!” from the sellout crowd of 46,081. He was charged with another run when Addison Barger singled home pinch runner Tyler Heineman.

Yes, things could have gone better. And in his most recent outing before Friday's, six days earlier, he was unable to protect an 8-4 lead, allowing four runs in the ninth inning of what became a 10-8, 10-inning loss to the Rays.

“It’s getting pretty frustrating. Nothing’s working right now,” said Williams, who is 0-2 with an 11.25 ERA, a 2.38 WHIP, a .343 opponents' batting average and one blown save in five opportunities. He’s  yielded 12 runs (10 earned), 12 hits and seven walks in eight innings.

Which prompted a question for Boone after the game: Would he consider moving Williams out of the closer role until he regains any confidence he may have lost?

Boone did not discount the idea out of hand, saying, “We’ll see. We’ll kind of talk through that stuff. We want to do everything we can to get him right because we know how good he is.”

Twelve hours later, Boone repeated himself  when asked if Williams will continue as the closer.

“We’ll still talk through this,” he said. “I haven’t seen Devin yet so we’ll try and do what’s best for the team and Devin and just get through this bump in the road and still expecting great things.”

Why?

“[He’s] been one of the dominant closers in the league,” Boone said. “I know the results haven’t been great yet, but a lot of the stuff is still there. The profile of the changeup is still there.

“Obviously, hitters have had success. He hasn’t got the swing-and-miss. He’s been behind in the count a little bit. Once he starts flipping that and starts getting some count leverage, I expect him to be the dominant closer he’s been.”

Why?

“I believe that the stuff is very much still there,” Boone said. “ . . . He has all the equipment to be great at this. So that’s a good place to start. This isn’t a guy that’s past his prime [or] anything like that. This is a guy that’s in the middle [of his career] and has a track record of not just success but dominance. So when you have that baseline, there’s always a way out. There’s always a way to get there. We’ll continue to lean into that and try and help him unlock it.

“And I feel once he gets on a roll, he will.”

Notes & quotes: The teams will play a single-admission doubleheader Sunday beginning at 1:35 p.m. The second game will start about  a half-hour after the first game ends. Gates will open at noon. Tickets for Saturday’s game will not be accepted but can be exchanged for another game . . . Max Fried will start Game 1 and Clarke Schmidt will start Game 2, Boone said . . . Reliever Jonathan Loaisiga (Tommy John surgery) began a rehab assignment at Class A Tampa.