{"id":63973,"date":"2025-12-08T08:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/63973\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T08:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:16:09","slug":"devin-williams-camp-never-called-yankees-back-before-mets-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/63973\/","title":{"rendered":"Devin Williams’ camp never called Yankees back before Mets deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO \u2014 Before he headed across town<\/a>, Devin Williams never got a formal offer from the Yankees \u2014 and never circled back to ask for one, either, according to Brian Cashman.<\/p>\n

Following a rocky first and only season in pinstripes, Williams landed a three-year, $51 million deal<\/a> from the Mets last week.<\/p>\n

Cashman said Sunday that he had at least one conversation with the reliever\u2019s agent this offseason and told him to keep the Yankees abreast of Williams\u2019 market.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he never called me back \u2014 I\u2019m not saying he needed to,\u201d Cashman said at the Winter Meetings.<\/p>\n

Cashman had acquired Williams from the Brewers last December, hoping the high-end closer would elevate the Yankees bullpen. <\/p>\n

\"NewDevin Williams throws a pitch during the Yankees\u2019 Oct. 7 game. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n

But Williams, who admittedly took some time to get comfortable in New York, got off to a tough start and lost the closer\u2019s job twice before finishing the season strong.<\/p>\n

In his introductory conference call after signing with the Mets, Williams indicated that he pitched better than his surface numbers (a 4.79 ERA) would suggest, a sentiment Cashman echoed.<\/p>\n

\"NewBrian Cashman addresses reporters during his Oct. 16 press conference. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n

\u201cI would agree that his season was better than how the normal numbers look. I would agree he had a handful of games that destroyed the overall numbers,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cBringing him back, I wouldn\u2019t have made the phone call if it wasn\u2019t a possibility, but we didn\u2019t make an offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yankees thought they were done with the Sonny Gray saga, but they got dragged back into it<\/a> last week after the veteran right-hander was traded to the Red Sox. <\/p>\n

Gray said he welcomed being in \u201ca place where it\u2019s easy to hate the Yankees\u201d and claimed he \u201cnever wanted to go there in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leading up to the Yankees acquiring him at the 2017 deadline, Cashman said Gray had told a number of different people \u2014 including their minor league video coordinator, Gray\u2019s former roommate at Vanderbilt \u2014 that he wanted to be a Yankee. <\/p>\n

It was not until after the 2018 trade deadline, according to Cashman, that Gray asked to meet with the GM and came clean about his true feelings regarding New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018I thought you were going to trade me,\u2019 \u201d Cashman said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Publicly, I\u2019m out trying to get starting pitching and bullpen. Why would I trade a starter when we need pitching badly?\u2019 \u2026 That\u2019s when he told me he never wanted to be here. He hates New York. This is the worst place. He just sits in his hotel room. \u2026 I said, \u2018Well it\u2019s a little late now.\u2019 So then I said, \u2018But you said you wanted to be traded here.\u2019 He said, \u2018My agent, Bo McKinnis, told me to do that. He told me to lie. It wouldn\u2019t be good for my free agency to say there\u2019s certain places I don\u2019t want to go to, so just go out and make sure you say \u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he told me after being with us for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Cashman said he does not expect to have Anthony Volpe (left shoulder surgery) before May. \u2026 Free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker recently visited the Blue Jays spring training facility, but Cashman said he has not done the same with the Yankees facility at Steinbrenner Field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO \u2014 Before he headed across town, Devin Williams never got a formal offer from the Yankees \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11947,19988,20,3473,9,11,320,10,321,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-63973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-brian-cashman","9":"tag-devin-williams","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-mlb-free-agency","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-new-york-yankees","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}