Devin Williams matches 3 years of Brewers success with latest Yankees failure

Devin Williams' nightmare in New York continues. Last night with the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers locked into a 0-0 game in the 8th inning, manager Aaron Boone called upon his "air-bending" right-hander, Williams, to get three big outs in the penultimate frame. After quickly loading the bases, something that Milwaukee Brewers fans certainly remember Williams' doing frequently during his time with the Crew, the 2x NL Reliever of the Year was staring down a former teammate: Rowdy Tellez. Almost as if he knew what was coming, Tellez waited back on a changeup below the strike zone and dumped a bloop single into center field, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead, and putting Williams in position for the loss.

The Rangers' recent trade acquisition, Phil Maton, took care of business in the 9th inning, and Texas went home with a series win over the Yankees, who they are chasing in the AL Wild Card race. For Williams, who blew a save in the Yankees' series opener against the Rangers on Monday night, the outing went down as his fifth loss of the season. However, a far more jarring stat is revealed when you compare the amount of earned runs that Williams has allowed this year to the amount that he surrendered during his three previous seasons with the Brewers.

Devin Williams' 2025 earned run total matches his combined total from 2022-2024

Williams took over as the Brewers' closer in 2022, though it took a midseason blockbuster of the team’s former closer, Josh Hader, for him to earn that role. Williams went on to earn 15 total saves in 2022, while carrying a 1.93 ERA by allowing just 13 total earned runs in his 65 appearances.

The following season, 2023, was Williams' best season of his career. He spent the entire year as the Brewers' closer, racked up 36 saves, was an All-Star, won NL Reliever of the Year, and even earned MVP votes. In his historic '23 campaign, Williams allowed just 10 earned runs in 58.2 innings, giving him a stellar 1.53 ERA for the season.

Last year, Williams missed the first half of the season with multiple stress fractures in his back, but when he returned to the mound he was just as dominant as ever. In 22 appearances from July 28 to the end of the season, Williams allowed just three total earned runs. Simply put, over the last three seasons, Devin Williams was as dominant of a relief pitcher as there was in MLB.

However, the switch has flipped for Williams ever since the Brewers sent him to New York for Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin this past offseason. Not only does he hold a 5.44 ERA through 47 appearances in pinstripes, but Williams also hasn't been striking batters out at nearly the same clip that he did for the Brew Crew. He's actually walking batters at his lowest rate since 2020, and his BABIP and expected ERA suggest that he's getting somewhat unlucky, but even still, he barely resembles the shut-down closer that he was in each of the last three seasons.

Williams’ name came up again among Brewers fans around the trade deadline, when the team traded Cortes, one of the two players that they received for Williams in the offseason, for a modest package. However, Cortes' trade value aside, the Brewers are continuing to benefit from simply not having Williams on their roster.

Call it the Magic of Milwaukee or the Curse of the Bronx, but whatever it is, the fact that Williams has allowed as many earned runs this season as he did in his final three seasons with the Brewers combined, just adds to an impressive list of instances in which Matt Arnold and the Brewers front office made the right move at the right time.