Devin Williams' latest betrayal makes mockery of Brewers' playoff failure

It's hard to say the Milwaukee Brewers didn't come out on top in the Devin Williams trade in the end.

Despite Nestor Cortes' failures with the Crew before being shipped to the San Diego Padres at the trade deadline, Caleb Durbin emerged as Milwaukee's starting third baseman in a sterling rookie campaign that landed him in third place in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.

Meanwhile, the New York Yankees got a career-worst year out of Williams, one in which he lost the team's closer job and fired off a mediocre 4.79 ERA.

Now, the decorated reliever is leaving in free agency for the crosstown rival New York Mets, and only after ending a half-century-long Yankees tradition.

And while yet another Yankees trade flopping is cause for celebration, Brewers fans should be none too pleased that Williams chose the Mets as his next home.

Devin Williams' cosmic betrayal of Brewers in free agency stings badly

Apologies for having to bring these memories back up, but I'll ask you to think back to October 3, 2024, for a moment.

At the time, the Brewers were leading the Mets 2-0 in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the NL Wild Card series. With their All-Star closer on the mound, the Crew were two outs away from winning their first postseason series since 2018.

Then, the Airbender threw a changeup that didn't quite bend enough air to Pete Alonso and... well, the rest is history.

Now, of course, Williams doesn't owe the Brewers anything. They literally traded him away on the cusp of his contract year precisely because they didn't want to pay him what he was worth.

However, there's still something that hurts about him going to the team that literally ended his career in Milwaukee. This isn't the same thing as Corbin Burnes choosing $200 million with the Arizona Diamondbacks; Williams hand-picked the very team that was responsible for the lowest point of his career.

It's hard to blame the guy for taking $51 million to pitch for the Yankees' in-city rival. He had an adversarial relationship with their fanbase last year, and the chance to pull the same maneuver as Juan Soto was probably too enticing to pass up.

Still, Williams will almost certainly be remembered as a Brewer when all is said and done, and it's just disheartening for his name to now always be attached to the Mets after what happened in the Wild Card Series.

Alas, both sides have moved on since that heartbreaking moment, and the Brewers have a chance for some payback if they meet Williams and the Mets in the playoffs once again.