Quick thoughts after the Yankees acquire Devin Williams

UPDATE: It is official. The Yankees have announced the trade and it is as reported: Williams for Cortes, Durbin, and cash ($2M per Bob Nightengale). The Yankees open next season at home against the Brewers, so Williams will get to face his former team right away. Nestor should get a nice hand during Opening Day baseline introductions. He's always gotten a good pop during those things.

ORIGINAL POST: The Yankees have a new closer. They have a trade in place to acquire Devin Williams from the Brewers for Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin, per all the trustworthy reporters. So much for Durbin being the guy at second base, eh? The Yankees reportedly had interest in Williams during the Winter Meetings. This didn’t come out of nowhere. They open a 40-man roster spot with the deal.

Williams, 30, has one year of control remaining, like Cortes. MLBTR projects them to get identical $7.7M salaries through arbitration, though the Yankees are sending the Brewers an undisclosed sum of cash in the trade, so it's not a wash, financially. Williams slides into the closer’s role and frees up Luke Weaver for fireman work. The updated bullpen:

• Closer: RHP Devin Williams

• Moment of Truth: RHP Luke Weaver

• High leverage: RHP Jake Cousins, RHP Ian Hamilton

• Former Cubs: RHP Scott Effross, RHP Mark Leiter Jr.

• Long: RHP JT Brubaker, RHP Marcus Stroman

• Depth: RHP Clayton Beeter, RHP Yoendrys Gómez, RHP Jonathan Loáisiga (eventually)

There’s still room for improvement there. The Yankees could definitely use a lefty even though Leiter and Weaver (and Williams) are effective against lefties. There are rumblings about a Tim Hill reunion, so we’ll see where that goes. It would make sense given his effectiveness last year and the team’s preferred profile of weak contact on that ground. Hill or no Hill, I don’t think the Yankees are done adding to the bullpen.

Williams missed the start of this past season with stress fractures in his back but was as good as ever once he returned in July: 1.25 ERA (2.06 FIP) with 43.2 K% and 12.5 BB%. Walk rates around 12% have been a constant for Williams, but so has the K% that starts with a 4. He combines elite strikeout rates with elite exit velocity suppression (career 85.2 mph average exit velocity allowed). One of the best relievers in baseball, truly.

The Max Fried signing allowed the Yankees to trade a starter and I don’t think for a second this takes trading Luis Gil (or Clarke Schmidt?) for Kyle Tucker is off the table. The updated rotation depth chart:

1. RHP Gerrit Cole
2. LHP Max Fried
3. LHP Carlos Rodón
4. RHP Luis Gil
5. RHP Clarke Schmidt
6. RHP Marcus Stroman
7. RHP JT Brubaker
8. RHP Cody Poteet
9. RHP Will Warren

You needn’t try hard to see the Yankees trading Gil (plus other stuff) for Tucker, salary dumping Stroman, then signing a free agent like, say, Walker Buehler to backfill innings. We’ve heard the Yankees connected to Jack Flaherty too. Maybe they go Charlie Morton, Max Scherzer, or Justin Verlander on a one-year deal? I dunno. Point is, do not assume that rotation you see above is final. More moves are coming.

Cortes, 30, was a revelation after rejoining the Yankees in 2021 and I feel like he’s become underrated. He threw a team-leading 174.1 innings with a 3.77 ERA in 2024 and the underlying numbers supported it: 3.84 FIP and 3.64 xERA. He’s a +3 WAR starter and those don’t grow on trees. You have to give to get though, plus Nestor is coming off a flexor strain. I love the guy, but he’s not without risk.

I never really bought the “Durbin is our second baseman” hype coming from Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone these last few weeks. His contact quality in Triple-A was terrible and he’s a good defender, but not a great defender. Your upside is limited when you have as little hard-hit ability as Durbin. I’m glad we can put to bed the idea that the Yankees would plug him in at second base full-time next season and let him go.

As for what the Yankees will do at second base, you got me. Spring Training is still two months away. Plenty of time to figure it out. Oswald Peraza is out of options and has a higher offensive ceiling than Durbin, plus he's a much better defender, so maybe it’s him. Or the Yankees could bring Gleyber Torres back! I would be all about that on a short-term deal, though supposedly the Yankees are moving on. Forget that, I guess.

Nestor’s a personal favorite, he’s good and fun, but you trade one year of your sixth best starter (and a Grade-C prospect) for one year of one five best relievers in the world eight days a week. And hey, Williams will be a qualifying offer candidate with a typical Williams season in 2025. The Yankees could recoup a prospect down the road that way. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though. Good trade. Sad to see Nestor go, but this is a trade the Yankees have to make 10 times out of 10.