Devin Williams Showing Some Well-Timed Improvement As Yankees Figure Out Their Bullpen

Relief pitching might be among the more volatile areas if not the department offering the most volatility.

The Yankees are experiencing those turbulent tendencies with a bullpen ERA amongst the bottom in the sport and the worst bullpen ERA since Aug. 1. It is interesting to see since Aug. 1 was the day after the Yankees added David Bednar, Camilo Doval and Jake Bird in three different trades from middling to bad National League teams.

Perhaps nobody in the Yankee bullpen is riding the turbulent waves like Devin Williams. Williams has appeared in 63 games spanning 58 innings and in the stretch the Yankees are struggling with the horrific bullpen ERA, he is contributing a 5.40 ERA, though that figure is ballooned by small samples.

For example, Williams allowed seven runs in a span of five outings in 4 2/3 innings between July 29-Aug. 8. Then he allowed one earned run in his next nine outings while pitching in differing degrees of leverage after being removed from the closer’s role for the second time.

The first time occurred April 27, two days after he allowed three runs in the ninth inning on April 25 in the first of eight Yankee losses to the Blue Jays. Upon being removed, Williams had one rough outing when he allowed three runs in a downpour against San Diego on May 5.

After that outing where he likely struggled to grip the ball properly, Williams had eight straight scoreless outings. He allowed two runs May 27 and had two more scoreless outings before Luke Weaver injured his hamstring warming up in Dodger Stadium June 1.

Williams moved back into the closer role and pitched 13 scoreless outings out of his final 15 outings before the All-Star break. Williams allowed runs in seven of his first nine outings after the break as the Yankees kept falling out of second place in the AL East.

All year, Williams has dealt with bumps in the road and speculation about where he goes after this season along with buzz about whether he is comfortable in New York.

Williams is up to five straight scoreless outings since allowing four runs two weeks ago in Houston. He pitched the eighth on Sept. 7 to allow the Yankees to hold off the Blue Jays in a game highlighted by Aaron Judge’s diving catch on George Springer’s sinking liner to end the fourth and Austin Wells making a strong throw to throw out a potential base stealer in the ninth.

Williams did not pitch for the next three games because the Yankees were blown out twice, including Sept. 9 in a massive bullpen meltdown by Fernando Cruz. After the Yankees won a blowout on Sept. 11 with certain people in the stands kind of paying attention, Williams was deployed twice in Boston and helped the Yankees gain more space in the wild card race by pitching the eighth.

In Minnesota, the Yankees experienced some shaky moments from the bullpen. On Monday in one of those games after a getaway night game teams might struggle in, Weaver allowed the Twins to turn a close game into a rout in an outing he described as “trash” and left him with a 12.00 ERA in a span of 11 appearances.

A night later after the Yankees left a nine-run lead diminish to a close game, Williams stabilized things, getting two strikeouts, including one of Byron Buxton. He helped the Yankees again on Wednesday by getting two outs with his changeup after allowing a hit.

What the Yankees may be seeing is a market correction for Williams, who is holding hitters to a .192 average with his signature changeup. Williams is still allowing career highs in hard hit percentage and exit velocity along with a career-low strikeout rate.

In a year when the volatility of the Yankee bullpen is more prevalent in some time, the Yankees will take any kind of upward trend as they figure out a pecking order or a circle of trust and it seems Williams may be starting to show what the Yankees anticipated when he was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers for Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin.

And the timing of Williams’ recent improvement may represent a good sign for the Yankees, who are still holding onto a glimmer of hope of winning the AL East while attempting to secure the first wild-card spot and homefield advantage.