The bullpen for the New York Yankees certainly had its ups and downs through the 2025 regular season. When it came to the starting rotation, they performed about as well as manager Aaron Boone or any of the Yankees faithful could have asked for. They finished eighth in MLB in fWAR and fourth in ERA. However, the bullpen was on the opposite side of the spectrum.

Through the 162-game regular season, the Yankees’ bullpen finished 21st in fWAR and 23rd in ERA, and it wasn’t strange to see headlines that the bullpen had blown another game.

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While not everyone in the bullpen was equally at fault for losing the team games, there were, of course, players who were common denominators, including a pitcher who just signed with the crosstown rival New York Mets: Devin Williams.

2025 Statistics: 67 games pitched, 62.0 IP, 4-6, 4.79 ERA (85 ERA+), 2.68 FIP, 2.95 xFIP, 34.7% K%, 9.7% BB%, 1.13 WHIP, 1.4 fWAR

2026 FanGraphs Depths Charts Projections: 63 games played, 63.0 IP, 3-3, 3.24 ERA, 3.28 FIP, 30.0% K%, 10.3% BB%, 1.21 WHIP, 0.8 fWAR

Now hear me out. None of this is meant to detract from the, let’s face it, dreadful season Williams had on the mound in his first season in pinstripes. In his first month, he finished with a 9.00 ERA. In July, he finished with a 5.73 ERA. His away ERA was 5.93. Simply put, Williams was bad, and the most frustrating part about all of it was that Boone continued to force the issue and put him in high-leverage spots. If the Yankees needed to get outs from the bullpen, Williams seemed to be called upon by the Yankees to try to convert on the opportunity even when he was at the height of his struggles.

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But if the Yankees were to make the right decisions with his deployment and really get a grasp on what went wrong last season (going from a sub-2.00 ERA pitcher to a 4.79 ERA pitcher doesn’t just happen out of thin air, without a reason), then it could have been possible to make up for lost time and give it another shot.

Williams, despite the issues in the “runs against” department, still had some solid peripheral numbers. He finished with a 1.4 fWAR, the fourth highest among Yankee pitchers and highest among the team’s relievers. He also finished around or above the 95th percentile in plenty of different categories, including expected batting average, whiff rate, chase rate, and strikeout rate.

With his primary two-pitch arsenal — a changeup and a four-seam fastball — still looking basically as it had in 2024, there were plenty of pieces of Williams’ game that were worth looking into for the Yankees. Not all of it was as bad as the surface numbers might point to. There is reason to believe that Williams can and will be an effective pitcher again. The Yankees seemed to agree at least to an extent, as they were reportedly interested in a reunion with Williams, despite his miserable introduction to the Bronx.

The numbers point to more good things happening in the future than bad things. But now that he’s off the market, the question will be, can another coaching staff bring the best out of him again? The version from the Brewers, who won the Rookie of the Year award in 2020, is a multiple-time All-Star and even finished top 20 in MVP voting in 2023. The Yankees won’t get a second chance to uncover that dominant reliever, and they’ll watch to see if their crosstown rivals are able to get Williams back to his peak with Milwaukee.