The New York Yankees have seen enough from Devin Williams for the time being.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone revealed to reporters on Sunday that he has decided to remove Williams from the closer role, via Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News. Boone added that the move is “for right now” and noted that fellow reliever Luke Weaver will likely handle the majority of the ninth-inning duties from here.
The decision by Boone comes after Williams had another meltdown in Friday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays. In that contest, Williams came in with a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning and promptly allowed three earned runs on a two hits and a hit-by-pitch, failing to record a single out as the Yankees went on to lose 4-2.
Williams now owns a horrific 11.25 ERA over his 10 appearances for the Yankees so far this season. The veteran righty is also walking a lot of batters (seven free passes over eight innings pitched) and his K/9 is down to 9.0 (compared to his career mark of 14.1).
The Yankees gave up a good amount to acquire Williams, a two-time All-Star, in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers this past offseason. That included another former All-Star pitcher as well as some younger talent.
But the return on investment for the Yankees thus far on Williams has been poor. While the team likely just wants to give Williams some time to gain back his confidence in lower-leverage roles, that trade looks pretty bad right now, especially given that the Yankees have even done some notable pandering to Williams in recent months.
