{"id":99707,"date":"2025-04-28T00:18:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T04:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=99707"},"modified":"2025-04-28T00:20:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T04:20:30","slug":"looking-into-devin-williams-recent-struggles-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/28\/looking-into-devin-williams-recent-struggles-yankees\/","title":{"rendered":"A Detailed Look into Devin Williams&#8217; Struggles This Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One facet of the New York Yankees getting a lot of attention is the back end of the bullpen, specifically their <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/14\/yankees-devin-williams-future-closer-extension\/\" target=\"_self\">closer<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=willide03,willia005dev&amp;search=Devin+Williams&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Devin Williams<\/a> is struggling mightily through this month of April, and there may be some measurable reasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The latest hiccup for Williams came on Friday in the Bronx against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/27\/blue-jays-call-up-speedster-outfielder-jonatan-clase\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>. The Yankees closer entered in the ninth inning to protect a 2-1 New York lead. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/springe01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">George Springer<\/a> led off with a single that started the fiasco.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Andr\u00e9s Gimenez was then hit by a pitch, moving Springer to second base. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kirkal01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alejandro Kirk<\/a> sprayed one to the center field gap, which pushed Springer and Gimenez across in tandem to take the lead 3-2.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bargead01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Addison Barger<\/a> then pushed one more run across to give Toronto the 4-2 lead, and eventually the win. This was a three-run blow-up for the Yankees closer, and not a spiffy look in any way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hours later, manager <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/booneaa01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Boone<\/a> announced that he would remove Williams from the closer role temporarily.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UACtWde8ILU?si=QyrXAdiN1MdWGhhO\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><b>Devin Williams&#8217; Current Statistics Cause Major Concerns<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s April and not entirely detrimental, but the stat line that Williams owns is quite concerning. The right-handed reliever holds an 11.25 ERA in just 10 games and eight innings of work. He\u2019s allowed 12 runs (10 earned) on 12 hits.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Williams has struck out eight batters, walking seven in 44 batters faced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>What We Know and What Needs to Happen<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Williams has been extremely effective in previous years. He was a two-time All-Star in 2022 and 2023 for the Milwaukee Brewers. In seven seasons, the right-hander has primarily depended on two pitches, a four-seam fastball and a changeup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So far this season, after being <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/13\/yankees-trade-for-devin-williams\/\" target=\"_self\">traded<\/a> in the offseason, his changeup is his most used pitch, at 55.5% usage. The fastball holds a 44.5% usage. Williams\u2019 changeup is usually his put-away pitch, depending on it for most of his outs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The issue is that the changeup is now uncovered by hitters and its effectiveness has declined. His strikeout rate has decreased to 16.7% and the Whiff rate has dropped from 48.8% to 22%. Hitters have figured this pitch out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Devin Williams has blown it AGAIN and the Blue Jays take the lead in the 9th! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lEyiJzvnt9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/lEyiJzvnt9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JustBB_Media\/status\/1915945448801488909?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, the changeup sits between 83-84 mph and is not placed effectively. The fastball averages 93.7 mph, facing similar issues. Pitch location in general is an issue for Williams right now. His pitches are missing the intended targets and ending up in vulnerable spots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The changeup has a 31.6% hard-hit percentage, and the fastball is at 44.4%. The zone contact percentage is 78.2% with a 71.4% chase contact percentage. His chase percentage is 27.2%, which is the lowest in his career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fix for Williams to find success on the mound will be to incorporate another pitch. The right-hander used to toy with a cutter, and he could end up reintroducing it. As we stand, it is too late to find any more velocity. His fastball works without much action, and the velocity is average.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He\u2019ll need to work on his fastball command and utilize it as much as the changeup. Both pitches need to build command abilities, and more willingness to work off the zone. This may increase his walk rate, but it\u2019s the risk of managing a save situation. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These numbers paint the picture of Devin Williams\u2019 struggles so far, and until this is addressed, his dominance will be in question.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One facet of the New York Yankees getting a lot of attention is the back end of the bullpen, specifically their closer. Devin Williams is struggling mightily through this month of April, and there may be some measurable reasons.\u00a0 The latest hiccup for Williams came on Friday in the Bronx against the Toronto Blue Jays. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5126,"featured_media":99710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1071],"tags":[5091,4266,548],"class_list":["post-99707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yankees","category-mlb","tag-alejandro-kirk","tag-devin-williams","tag-george-springer"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99707"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99712,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99707\/revisions\/99712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}