The Yankee fans who chanted “We want [Luke] Weaver” as Devin Williams struggled on Friday night might get their wish. The bet here is that Williams will be taking a break from his job as the team’s closer.
After Williams blew a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning en route to a 4-2 loss to Toronto, manager Aaron Boone was twice asked if Williams would remain his closer. Both times, the manager said that it was too soon after the game to decide.
“We’ll see,” Boone said when asked if Williams would benefit from moving to lower leverage situations. “We’ll kind of talk through this stuff. This is raw right now. We want to do everything we can to get him right, because we know how good he is and how valuable he is going to be from us.”
We’ve seen Boone on the job for too many years to be ignorant of his press conference tells. There is almost no way he would offer that answer if he hadn’t already decided to give Williams a break from save situations.
Williams, a star closer acquired in the offseason from Milwaukee, now has an 11.25 ERA in 10 appearances. He has virtually no command of his pitches, and no idea why it is happening.
“Truthfully, I don’t know,” Williams said. “It’s something I have been battling for most of the season, so it’s getting pretty frustrating.”
In addition to the issues with command, Williams’ fastball is down a full mile per hour compared to last season. That reduces the velocity differential between the heater and his signature “Airbender” changeup, which could make the latter pitch less effective.
“Maybe a little bit,” Boone said. “It’s a game of changing speeds and deception, and ultimately trying to throw that timing off of the hitter. Obviously, our group is looking into everything.”
Weaver’s fastball velocity is also down about a mile per hour on average this year, but he has an ERA of 0.00 in 11 appearances.
The next time we see him, it might well be with the Yankees leading in the ninth inning by three runs or fewer.