
The New York Yankees won’t play on Saturday after their scheduled game against the Toronto Blue Jays was postponed because of rain. When the Yankees resume their season on Sunday, they may employ a different approach to the ninth inning following closer Devin Williams‘ latest poor showing.
Williams, obtained from the Milwaukee Brewers over the offseason, turned in his worst effort of the year on Friday. He entered to a one-run read to begin the ninth inning, but promptly surrendered three runs on two hits and a hit batsman. Williams was subsequently charged with his first blown save, his second loss, and his fourth “meltdown.” (The meltdown is a FanGraphs-tracked statistic that judges relievers based on their Win Probability Added.)
Overall, Williams is now sporting an 11.25 ERA (37 ERA+) and a 1.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio through his first 10 appearances.
“We’ll see,” manager Aaron Boone told reporters on Friday about potentially using Williams in lower-leverage situations until he can right the ship. “We’ll kind of talk through that 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’s going to be for us.”
If Boone and the Yankees do make a change in the ninth inning, it would seem more likely than not they would turn the ball over to right-hander Luke Weaver. Whereas Williams has scuffled to begin the season, Weaver has excelled by stringing together 13 consecutive scoreless innings.
Even with Williams’ early season woes, the Yankees entered Saturday with a 15-11 record on the year. That puts the Yankees in first place in the American League East, and their 1 ½ game lead over the Boston Red Sox ensures they’ll enter Sunday in that same position.
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