Mets express interest in signing reliever Devin Williams“, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. MLB Network’s Jon Morosi said the Tigers and Giants are also interested. It was previously reported that about a dozen teams were in the running for Williams, including the Red Sox, Reds, Dodgers and Marlins. The Mets, Tigers and Giants could now be counted among his suitors.
Williams, 31, is coming off an uneven season with the Yankees. The Brewers traded the star reliever to New York in exchange for Nestor Cortes, Caleb Durbinand cash considerations through December 2024. At the time, he had long been considered an elite closer, posting a 1.83 ERA in 235 2/3 innings for Milwaukee between 2019 and 2024. At that time, his strikeout rate was 39.4% and his K-BB rate was 27.6%, ranking fourth and fifth respectively among qualified relievers. While he did walk 11.8% of batters during that span, his elite strikeout numbers more than made up for it. All told, Williams had 7.6 fWAR during his time in Milwaukee, which ranked sixth among qualified relievers. Ryan PressleyRanked fifth ahead of Williams with 8.0 fWAR but pitched 74 more innings.
The Yankees will certainly be hoping for more of the same from Williams in his final year before hitting free agency. Instead, he posted a 4.79 ERA in 62 innings while being moved in and out of closer roles due to his performance. His first 12 games of the season were terrible, with Williams striking out at an unusually low 20.0% rate and walking 16.0% during March and April, holding opponents to a .300/.420/.400 batting line. The strikeout and walk numbers returned to normal the rest of the way, but Williams continued to post uneven run prevention numbers, posting a 0.93 ERA in June, followed by an ERA over 4.90 in July and August before dipping to 3.72 in September and October. While his contribution was still worth 1.4 WAR according to FanGraphs, the bottom line results were clearly not what Williams was hoping for in his platform season.
Still, he’s drawing a lot of interest, largely due to his stellar perimeter numbers. Despite a below-average ERA, Williams still has a 34.7% strikeout rate in 2025, tied for eighth among qualified relievers. His 9.7% on-base percentage, while still above league average, was actually his best since 2020 and down from 12.5% in 2024. He also continues to induce ground balls 44.6 percent of the time, which is better than the league average for relievers at 42.3 percent. His expected numbers, including a 3.07 xERA and 2.95 ERA, are also much better than his ERA. In terms of material, Williams’ signature changeup remains superior in run value, while his fourth-seam fastball velocity only dropped slightly from 94.7 mph in 2024 to 94.1 mph this year.
These signs point to Williams still being an elite closer, so it’s no surprise that interest in him is high. Of the three new teams mentioned, the Mets are an interesting example. Their president of baseball operations, David Stearns, is familiar with Williams from their shared experience with the Brewers. The Mets bullpen ranks 15th with a 3.93 ERA and 13th with a 22.8% strikeout rate in 2025. Owner Steve Cohen is clearly willing to spend big, and the pressure to win will be even greater in 2026 after a dismal 83-79 season and playoff loss this year.
Meanwhile, the Tigers bullpen has a 4.05 ERA (17th in the league) and a K-BB rate of 11.3%, which ranks 27th. The team will definitely want to take advantage of Tarik SkubalThis is the final year of team control, so their interest in Williams makes sense. As for the Giants, their bullpen is slightly better than Detroit’s, but still below average, with a 12.8% K-BB rate this year (20th). We at MLBTR ranked Williams as the 16th best free agent of the offseason and predicted he would sign a four-year, $68MM deal.
Photos courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Image Images
