The Yankees may already have Devin Williams' replacement on the roster

The Yankees are going to give Devin Williams every opportunity to seize his role as the team's closer. That doesn't mean he has an indefinite amount of time to maintain his spot in manager Aaron Boone's bullpen. Fernando Cruz's emergence as a late-innings option for New York gives the franchise a valuable safety net.

No one should blame Yankees fans who watched Cruz in Spring Training for being surprised at this development. The 35-year-old righty insists he didn't "panic" when things didn't go his way down in Florida. Instead, he embraced the opportunity to rework his mechanics with bullpen coach Mike Harkey.

The focus of that work was lessening the effort level in Cruz's delivery. He claims to have improved his fastball command as a result. Opposing hitters would agree. They've struck out 19 times in just 12 innings against the Yankees' latest dominant reliever.

Williams has struggled mightily in the midst of Cruz's dominant run. He sports a 9.00 ERA in his eight games with the franchise and was on the mound for an ugly collapse in the ninth inning against Tampa Bay on the weekend. He wasn't necessarily a victim of hard contact against the Rays but he still managed to surrender a four-run lead.

Williams does possess a solid track record of success as a closer. That, coupled with his history of slow starts will embolden the Yankees to exercise patience when it comes to his spot in the bullpen. It's reasonable to think his results will start to improve as he gains a better feel for his best pitch. At its best, Williams' airbender makes hitters look foolish. The pitch hasn't produced nearly as swings and misses as expected in the early going.

Conventional wisdom might put Luke Weaver in the pole position to take over for Williams if he continues to struggle. He's also enjoyed an excellent start to the 2025 season despite suffering a small, but notieceable downtick in velocity.

The smart move for Boone would be to let Weaver continue to thrive in his multi-inning role. Being able to deploy him at the first high-leverage point in any game is a massive advantage for the Yankees. Simple math indicates that giving a highly effective reliever Weaver more work should yield positive results for the team's bullpen.

Fernando Cruz should be the next man up for the Yankees if Devin Williams continues to struggle

Cruz does not possess the same sort of versatility. He is only suited to come into the game for short bursts. He has reduced the violence and effort of his delivery but he's still best when deployed in short bursts. That's when his elite splitter can do the most damage against the opposition.

One another dark horse candidate to jump into the team's closer mix is injured right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga. He threw a live batting practice session last weekend down in Tampa. He'll need to head out on a rehab assignment before getting back to the Bronx but his recovery progress is noticeable.

Loaisiga will likely rejoin the bullpen as another high-leverage setup option but there's no reason to believe he can't close games if his stuff returns to the same level it was before his latest injury. That might be a rosy outlook for a veteran who's struggled mightily to stay healthy in recent seasons but his power arm could help the Yankees close out games in the ninth.

Any Yankee fan taking the 10,000 foot view of the team's bullpen options should be encouraged. Cruz's emergence as a legitimate late-inning option combines with Weaver's brilliance gives the organization a high-quality bridge to the ninth inning. The challenge for New York now is finding the right guy to nail the game shut.

The best outcome for the franchise is for Williams to rediscover his All-Star form quickly and end any potential controversy about who the team's closer should be. They traded for him to be the hammer at the end of their bullpen. If he fails to nail that role down over the next several weeks it will go down as a failure for GM Brian Cashman and his front office.

Acquiring Cruz should go down as a big mark in Cashman's favor. They paid relatively little to land him and might have an All-Star reliever on their hands. They'd prefer to keep him in a setup role but he's a viable option for the team if they need to make a change at closer. Every dominant outing Cruz produces will only heap pressure on Williams to get back to his best as soon as possible.