NEW YORK — The back-and-forth between Devin Williams and the Yankees took a sharp turn this week, and the reliever’s latest dig at his former club has stirred more backlash than momentum to settle at his new home in Queens
Mets deal sparks old tension
Williams signed a three-year contract worth $51 million with the Mets on Dec. 3, ending a turbulent one-year stay with the Yankees. He explained his decision in simple terms.
“They’re a team that wants to win,” Williams said on a Zoom call. “Steve is doing all he can to put a winning product on the field, and I’d love to be part of that.”
His praise for Mets owner Steve Cohen drew instant attention. It also carried an unmistakable contrast to his time in the Bronx, where his 2025 season unraveled at a speed no one expected. Williams arrived last winter as a proven closer from Milwaukee. He exited with a 4.79 ERA, lost assignments, and a fractured relationship with the fan base.
Struggles that never left the spotlight
The Yankees trusted Williams with the ninth inning to open 2025. That trust vanished in weeks. He finished his first month with a 9.00 ERA and was moved out of the closer role by late April. He tried to fix it by calling his own pitches through PitchCom. For a stretch, it worked. He went 2-0 with a 2.42 ERA over 24 outings. He saved seven games. He held 20 leads.
But July returned the same problems. He gave up five earned runs in his first three games of the month. He blew a save in Texas and then took two losses in his next three outings. Yankee Stadium responded with daily boos. Manager Aaron Boone kept giving him high-leverage innings, yet the results kept spiraling. By the trade deadline, the Yankees replaced him with David Bednar.
Williams stokes Yankees fire online
After signing with the Mets, Williams updated his social media accounts, something he barely did during his Yankees tenure. He then posted a message aimed squarely at Yankees fans.
“For a bunch of people that didn’t want me back on your team, y’all sure are mad in the DMs,” he wrote.
It was a jab meant to sting. Instead, it backfired. Many fans saw it as an attempt to shift blame for a season filled with blown leads and shaky outings.
The segment went viral. Yankees fans began revisiting every blown save. Mets fans welcomed the drama. And Williams found himself at the center of a citywide argument before throwing a single pitch for his new team.
Radio host fires back
New York radio host C Mac responded with a blistering message, accusing Williams of costing the Yankees the division crown.
“In all of my years of watching them, I don’t know if I could point to one player as much as I can point to you and say, you lost us the division,” he said. “At every opportunity to add pressure to your season last year, you came up small in every single one.”
The point hit a nerve because the Yankees missed the division by a slim margin behind the Blue Jays. Every close loss mattered. Several of those losses came in games Williams could not close.
Why his message missed its mark
Williams’ shot at Yankees fans suggests he believed he had earned enough goodwill to joke on his way out. That never existed. He arrived from Milwaukee as an All-Star, not as a homegrown player with years of trust built in. Fans waited for the dominant “Airbender” changeup to erase hitters the way it did in the National League. Instead, they saw walks, missed locations, and blown saves.
Even when he improved in May and June, his early season damage forced the Yankees into constant bullpen reshuffling. His July slide returned the instability. The Yankees needed reliability in the American League East. They did not get it.
Yet Williams continues to argue that his season was misunderstood. “I feel like there was kind of a lot of factors really,” he said. “Some mechanical pitch-selection type stuff.”
Under the hood, his metrics were strong. His FIP stayed close to his career mark. His strikeout rates remained elite. He planned to add a cutter and slider this winter to support his fastball and changeup.
Metrics or not, outcomes matter. And the Yankees did not win enough games with him.
Mets make a gamble
The Mets believe they can unlock his best form. Williams said New York now feels familiar.
“It’s comfortable,” he said. He also trusts David Stearns, who ran the Brewers during Williams’ rise. He is open to closing or setting up for Edwin Diaz. “More arms is always a good thing,” Williams said.
The Mets see value in a reliever with elite stuff who had a rough year. The Yankees see a year that exposed his limits in the division’s toughest moments.
Bronx reaction grows louder
What turned Williams’ comments into a larger controversy is that they came after a season in which the Yankees stuck with him for months, even as fans groaned. Boone kept him in late-game situations. The front office kept saying he would rebound. Many expected the Yankees to move on in October. But some reports suggested Brian Cashman spoke to Williams’ agent about a return. It confused fans who watched him labor through the most winnable games of the year.
When Williams mocked them online, that confusion turned into anger. Many pointed out that he never intended to play for the Yankees and kept his profile picture on the Instagram unchanged.
Why the blow boomeranged
His words were intended as a fresh start. Instead, they highlighted why the Yankees are comfortable letting him cross borough lines. They wanted a reliever who could command the strike zone, stay ahead of hitters, and show calm in the ninth inning. Williams did not show that in 2025. He often looked rattled, even in low-pressure spots.
The Mets may get a revived version. The Yankees saw one who didn’t fit the moment.
Now the two sides move on. But Williams’ attempt to turn the narrative into a Yankees problem only reminded fans of every late-inning collapse. Each post, each comment, each quote has added more fire to a rivalry that needed no extra spark.
Next year, when Williams runs out of the Queens bullpen and steps onto the mound in the Bronx, the noise will return. This time it won’t be about performance. It will be about his words.
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