As it turns out, there are such things as lose-lose trades. Okay, okay, I may be getting a little bit ahead of myself here, but the Nestor Cortes-Devin Williams deal between the Milwaukee Brewers and the New York Yankees has been bumpy to say the least. Cortes is serving up meatballs like he moonlights at an Italian restaurant, while Williams has not felt like himself physically since coming to the Yankees.
For the Yankees, this trade was somewhat reactionary to what happened in last year's World Series run. New York may have run into the buzzsaw that was the Los Angeles Dodgers, but three things became readily apparent for them. One, they cannot really play defense. Not sure if that has been addressed, to be honest. Two, Cortes pitched batting practice. And three, their bullpen was leaky.
So in an effort to kill two birds with one stone, the Yankees may have slingshot-ed it back in their face. Again, this is a very small sample size, but Williams has not been as advertised since coming over in the trade that sent Cortes to Milwaukee. We have another 5.5 months of regular-season baseball to discover before really assessing if this trade was worthwhile or not. For now, it has been regretful.
It should be noted March/April is the worst stretch of games for Williams throughout his MLB career.
Devin Williams said, "I haven't felt like 100% myself up to this point," but he said he's fine physically.
— Gary Phillips (@GaryHPhillips) April 9, 2025
Attributed struggles to needing game reps & lack of execution. He added he's struggled in the early parts of the season before.
The #Yankees' closer entered the day with a…
Regardless, both were acquired to help their new teams go further in the postseason than last year.
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Devin Williams early season struggles mirror Nestor Cortes' downfall
For the Yankees, adding Williams was all about getting more dynamic and explosive in the back-end of its bullpen. While they were banking on Gerrit Cole pitching for them this season, at least they have a new ace they can trust for the time being in Max Fried. The Yankees should still be one of the better teams in the American League this season, but I sense that there will be more competitors at the top.
As for the Brewers, they have taken advantage of rivals Chicago and St. Louis not having their collective stuff together in the NL Central. While nobody outside of Wisconsin buys the Brew Crew's upward trajectory other than an NLDS team at this point, somebody has to win the worst division in the Senior Circuit. It could be Milwaukee again, but the other four teams seem to be gunning for them.
Overall, we have to give trades time to see if they will work out. Williams could be on the American League All-Star team if he turns the corner in the coming weeks and months. As for Cortes, well, let's just hope for Milwaukee's sake that he is still on the team by season's end. Baseball is a game of failure, one where you have to remain confident throughout. As soon as you lose it, you are so toast...
For now, we will be keeping tabs on whatever Cortes and Williams do on their respective teams.