Brewers: 4 Players Who Should Be End Of Season Award Finalists

Player #4: Devin Williams - NL Reliever of the Year

Plain and simple, the Milwaukee Brewers have dominated this award for the past half decade. Since 2018, a Brewers reliever has won the award all but one time (Edwin Diaz of the New York Mets won the award last season).

Josh Hader is a three-time winner of the award, taking home the hardware in 2018, 2019, and 2021, and Devin Williams won the award back in the shortened 2020 season.

This year, Devin Williams has made a strong case to win the award for a second time. Albeit, it'll likely be a tight race, but Williams has been tremendous this season for Milwaukee.

For starters, Williams has been, yet again, one of the best relievers in the National League at striking batters out. His 37.3% strikeout rate is second in the National League, as is his impressive strikeouts per nine of 13.27 (Josh Hader leads both categories with a K% of 37.7% and a K/9 of 13.91).

On top of being one of the best strikeout artists in the NL, Williams has effectively limited hits this year as well, as he is allowing an opponent batting average of just .131, which is by far the best in the National League. He is top-four in the NL in WHIP (0.94), and his ability to keep runners off the bases has played a large role in him racking up 36 saves, which is the fourth-most in the NL.

The Airbender has the third-lowest ERA among NL relievers at 1.56 to go along with the fifth-lowest FIP at 2.72. In turn, it's no surprise to see grade out as one of the more valuable relievers in baseball. He is near the top of the leaderboard with a 1.7 WAR, which is the sixth-best in the NL according to FanGraphs. Williams is also third in the National League in terms of Win Probability Added at 3.83, further illustrating how much value he has brought to Milwaukee's bullpen.

Williams has been as good as you could have hoped for the Brewers this season, and his performance this year has played an enormous role in the Brewers becoming division champs yet again this season. He continues to be one of the most lockdown relievers in baseball, and he is more than deserving of the Trevor Hoffman Award for his performance in 2023.