It is right there in front of him, but it does not mean Devin Williams will ever reach out and grab it. For as good has he was during his first six MLB seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, he has been anything but that for the New York Yankees. In the midst of his worst professional season, Yankees manager Aaron Boone is finding new and creative ways to get value out of his overpriced reliever.
Boone took the time to appear on Talkin' Yanks this week to address the ongoing Williams conundrum. Since leaving The Brew Crew behind for a role in pinstripes, Williams cannot do anything right. His ERA is well over 5.00 and rapidly approaching 6.00. That is more than double his career average of 2.44. He is no longer closing games for the Yankees, but he has to turn it around soon.
Boone offered this while on Talkin' Yanks as to what the Yankees plan do when it comes to Williams.
"We'll get him into some lower-leverage spots, but you don't always have that say going into a night, depending on who's available, who's not, how deep in the game your starter gets, how you have to get to the finish line, those kind of things. So you gotta be ready for all situations. It's all hands on deck right now. We're in the stretch drive of this and we need to do all we can."
Boone has been presented problems and offered no solutions for this third-place AL East team.
Aaron Boone says the Yankees are hoping to use Devin Williams in lower leverage spots, but "you don't always have that say" depending on how the game unfolds pic.twitter.com/xUJYKJo7Fq
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 12, 2025
In all likelihood, Boone will wear it at the end of year, but so should general manager Brian Cashman.
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Devin Williams' ineffectiveness has Aaron Boone's hands all tied up
With a season on the brink of truly getting away from the Yankees, as well as Boone's overall job security never being more on the line, the team's star players, or the guys who are being paid like stars in Williams' case, need to step up. While Boone gets more than his share of flack for the team underperforming, he can only do so much with the high-priced roster that Cashman builds up for him.
Since baseball is such a game of confidence, it would serve Boone to put Williams into less pressure-packed situations while he can in an attempt for him to finally find himself again. However, he is absolutely right in that sometimes the game and the situation at hand more often than not dictates if a guy goes into action or not. The idea of giving Williams layups is great and all, but this is baseball...
Overall, we have to wonder how much better than Yankees would be right now if Williams did not skip a beat coming over from Milwaukee. The Yankees have been the epitome of close, but no cigar all season long. Guys like Williams being ineffective in their roles are reasons for that. While he cannot carry all the blame, as he is a relief pitcher after all, the Yankees need to play with a bit more urgency.
Just because they won the AL pennant last year does not mean they will be making the postseason.