Some offseasons are about chasing stars. Others are about getting the simple things right. The Yankees are in the latter category this winter, and the conversation around Devin Williams captures that reality better than anything.
When Ken Rosenthal reported that the Yankees and Williams’ camp had reopened communication — “The Yankees and the camp for free agent late-inning reliever Devin Williams recently discussed the potential for a possible reunion,” via The Athletic — it didn’t come as a surprise. It came as a reminder.
The Yankees still believe there’s a better version of Williams waiting to reappear. The question is whether they’re willing to bet on it after watching his 2025 season cave in on itself.
Why the Yankees haven’t closed the door
The Yankees didn’t just trade for Williams last winter because of his reputation. They traded for him because the underlying numbers were absurd across nearly every category that mattered. His changeup remained one of the most deceptive pitches in baseball. Hitters were still chasing at elite clips. His whiff rate lived in rare air. Even in a down year, he ranked in the 97th percentile in strikeout rate and chase rate and in the 99th percentile in whiff rate.
That’s not the profile of a reliever whose stuff evaporated. That’s the profile of a reliever who got lost.
And the Yankees believe they saw that, too. Williams threw a career-high 62 innings. He carried long stretches where command abandoned him. His left-on-base rate cratered to 55.2 percent, a number usually reserved for pitchers whose mechanics or timing are out of sync. Even so, he still punched out 13.06 batters per nine innings.
When a pitcher falls apart physically, the signs are obvious. With Williams, the inconsistency felt mental. The execution, not the arsenal, betrayed him.
The financial angle the Yankees can’t ignore
A reunion only makes sense at the right price, and that’s exactly what the Yankees are trying to feel out. They aren’t in position to hand out multi-year guarantees to relievers who just logged a 4.79 ERA and carried stretches of volatility. But they also recognize that Williams, when he’s right, is a late-inning weapon capable of shaping an entire bullpen.
That’s why something like a one-year deal with a player option for 2027 sits squarely in the sweet spot. It gives Williams a chance to rebuild his market and gives the Yankees a chance to benefit from the bounce-back. No long-term commitments. No cap-tightening risks. Just a controlled swing at upside they already believe still exists.
What this means for the bullpen puzzle
The bullpen is thin right now, and the Yankees know it, despite adding David Bednar, Camilo Doval, and Jake Bird at the trade deadline. Luke Weaver is exploring free agency. Williams is on the market. And the team doesn’t have the luxury of entering 2026 hoping their internal arms carry the entire load. They need stability around Bednar. They need swing-and-miss profiles they can trust in tight spots. They need depth.
Williams checks those boxes if he can rediscover even 85 percent of his old form.
He doesn’t need to be perfect. He just needs to be functional. And his track record suggests that “functional” for him is still better than “dominant” for most relievers.
The bet the Yankees are deciding whether to make
There’s risk here. No one inside the Yankees will pretend otherwise. Williams’ 2025 season was too uneven to gloss over, and his command issues weren’t minor annoyances. They derailed innings. They derailed games. They derailed trust.
But the Yankees also know this: pitchers with Williams’ underlying data don’t fade quietly. They rebound. They stabilize. They figure it out.
And if Devin Williams figures it out in the Bronx, the Yankees would rather he do it wearing their uniform than someone else’s.
A reunion won’t define their offseason, but it might be one of the smarter bets they make.