Yankees' Aaron Boone 'really confident' Devin Williams will turn things around
Devin Williams of the Yankees pitches during the ninth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
BALTIMORE — The Yankees stuck with Clay Holmes for most of the 2024 season, even as his blown-save total mounted and mounted throughout the year. The club did not pull the plug on their former closer until after that number reached 13 on Sept. 18.
Devin Williams’ leash ended up being considerably shorter. The situations, of course, are not completely analogous.
Despite plenty of high-wire acts along the way, Holmes converted 13 of his first 14 save chances and did not allow an earned run until May 20.
Williams has had a decidedly different start to his Yankees' career, posting an 11.25 ERA and 2.38 WHIP through 10 games. The final of those came on Friday night against the Blue Jays, when Williams did not retire a batter and failed to hold a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning. The ugly night, where Williams allowed three runs, led to the him getting vociferously booed off the mound, an eventual 4-2 loss and, ultimately, the righthander losing his closer job for the foreseeable future.
The Yankees going to Luke Weaver — as they did late last season when it came to replacing Holmes — is a hard-to-argue-against decision.
Weaver, terrific last season in pretty much every role the Yankees put him in, entered Monday night having not allowed a run in his first 14 innings of 2025. In fact, in his last 20 games since Sep. 6, 2024, Weaver is 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 25 innings and 6-for-6 in save opportunities.
Still, why not give Williams, whose bona fides as a closer had been well-established, a bit longer to work things out?
“For right now, I think it’s best for everyone that we pull him out of that role and try to start building some good rhythm and confidence and momentum,” Aaron Boone said Sunday. “And we fully expect him to be a central figure for us moving forward.”
Speaking on Monday before the Yankees started a three-game series against the Orioles at Camden Yards, Boone said he does not have specific scenarios in mind for deploying Williams.
“There’s going to be days where have certain guys down or who have worked a lot in the several or whatever,” Boone said. “There will be leverage spots that he’s going to be in and I’m not going to hesitate to go to him in those. There may be times where if he hasn’t worked in a handful days, I may want to get in there in a specific spot.”
For his part, Williams sounded the right notes on Sunday night when discussing his demotion.
“It’s disappointing,” Williams said. “You work for years to get to that point, and to have that taken away from you, it’s not a fun feeling at all. But I can’t say it’s undeserved.”
He added: “Being the closer is a position you have to earn. And you have to keep earning it to continue to be in that role. Lately, I haven’t been doing that.”
Over the years, Boone has made a point of checking the video and/or audio of how his players answer questions from the media in certain situations — primarily those involving some adversity — and did so Sunday night when it came to Williams.
“I don’t think that’s any player’s favorite thing to do is to get up in front of a bunch of media when you’ve had some struggles,” Boone said. “Obviously, it’s a story and you’ve got to face that, especially for someone that’s had as much success as he’s had. But I think he’s handling it well.
"I think he’s ready to compete and take the ball. And the biggest thing is, I feel like, even though he’s going through it… I think he knows at his core how good he is. I reminded him of that, but he knows. It’s a hard thing to have to go through, but you have to fight through it and know you’ll get to the other side of it, and I’m really confident he will.”
Notes & quotes: Jonathan Loaisiga, who started the season on the IL while recovering from right elbow surgery, started a rehab assignment over the weekend with Class-A Tampa. Boone said the righthander is “a few weeks away” from rejoining the Yankees and giving them another power arm in the bullpen. “I don’t have an exact date for you,” Boone said… It has been a slower-than-expected healing process for Marcus Stroman, placed on the IL on April 12 with left knee inflammation. “Still dealing with the knee stuff, trying to get it healed,” Boone said. “I think he’s just getting some irritation [in the knee] that kind of won’t leave. I know he’s gotten some injections in there to try and ease some of that but not where we need it to be yet.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
