Yankees' Boone Says Devin Williams Will 'Be Lights Out and Dominant' Despite 10+ ERA

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone is confident that Devin Williams will turn his season around despite another rough outing on Monday that raised his ERA to 10.03.

After Williams was charged with three earned runs on one hit and two walks in just 0.2 innings in the Yankees' 4-3 loss to the San Diego Padres, Boone told reporters he has no doubt the right-hander will "be lights out and dominant" when he finds his command.

"The biggest thing, again, is just command and being ahead and not putting guys on," Boone said. "Stuff's there. Stuff's fine and I do believe he'll get on a roll and be lights out and dominant. But the command part of it, where the walks or getting behind in certain situations, have hurt him a little bit."

Boone's assessment that Williams' stuff is there doesn't totally match with what some of the data shows. His average fastball velocity of 93.6 mph is down more than one mile per hour from 2024 (94.7).

Per Baseball Savant, Williams' barrel rate of 8.8 ranks in the 44th percentile among all pitchers. It was at 5.4 percent last year.

The Yankess acquired Williams from the Milwaukee Brewers in December. They expected him to help them build a dominant bullpen.

Things have not gone the way Williams or the Yankees were betting on thus far. The 30-year-old has already allowed more earned runs this season (13) in just 11 innings as he did in all of 2023 in 58.2 innings (10).

Boone already removed Williams from the closer's role on April 27, giving ninth-inning duties to Luke Weaver. The Yankee skipper did say at the time Williams could eventually return to closing games.

Williams is averaging career-worsts in walks per nine innings (7.7) and WHIP (1.07). His 10.0 hits allowed per nine innings is only lower than his rookie season (11.9), when he pitched 13.2 innings.

The Yankees are fortunate to have a deep bullpen that can pick up the slack while Williams is trying to figure things out. Their relievers rank second in strikeouts per nine innings (10.04) and eighth in ERA (3.25) this season.