Yankees acquire RP Devin Williams from Brewers for Nestor Cortes Jr., Caleb Durbin

The New York Yankees have acquired reliever Devin Williams from the Milwaukee Brewers, it was announced Friday. Pitcher Nestor Cortes Jr., infield prospect Caleb Durbin and some cash are heading to Milwaukee.

The 30-year-old Williams recorded 14 saves in 22 appearances last season with the Brewers. He missed the first three months of the season due to a stress fracture in his back. After he returned, Williams allowed only three earned runs over 21 2/3 innings in the regular season.

In the postseason, Williams made two appearances in Milwaukee’s series against the New York Mets. It was Williams who gave up Pete Alonso’s ninth-inning home run in Game 3 that sparked the Mets’ series-clinching rally.

The Brewers declined Williams’ $10.5 million option for the 2025 season, and he will enter his final season of arbitration in 2025.

Williams, a two-time NL All-Star and the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year, spent all six of his MLB seasons with the Brewers and took over the closer’s role, picking up 68 saves in 235 2/3 innings while posting a 1.83 ERA and 1.02 WHIP.

The addition of Williams, plus the return of Jonathan Loáisiga, who is coming off Tommy John surgery, will bolster the Yankees’ bullpen. The question remains whether manager Aaron Boone will use Williams or Luke Weaver as the team’s closer in 2025.

Clay Holmes, who was the Yankees’ closer until he lost the job to Weaver, signed with the New York Mets last week.

Cortes has turned himself into a reliable starter since he began seeing an increased workload in 2021. He made 84 starts over the past four seasons for the Yankees (173 1/3 innings in 2024), but with the addition of Max Fried on the Yankees, it was clear that someone in the rotation needed to be moved.

For New York, this is a tremendous follow-up to the massive signing of Max Fried to an eight-year, $218 million deal. The Yankees strengthened their rotation with one of the best southpaw starters in the league in Fried and now fortify their bullpen with one of the best closers in baseball in Williams. While there is still ample work to be done to address the position-player group, the Yankees correctly identified that replacing Soto’s impact on offense would be difficult — if not impossible — given the options available and Soto’s unique ability. Instead, they have thus far pursued high-end talent on the mound in hopes of forming an elite pitching staff that can serve as the backbone of the team’s success.

And Milwaukee has run this playbook before, having traded star closer Josh Hader before the end of his contract and dealt ace Corbin Burnes with one year remaining on his deal. While Williams was injured in 2024, the Brewers demonstrated that they can conjure up viable high-leverage relief arms as well as any organization in baseball, and there are several candidates who could emerge in 2025 as the next great Milwaukee closer. Gigantic flamethrower Trevor Megill, who quietly collected 21 saves in 2024, is the heir apparent as things stand, though he’ll need to prove that he can hold up over the course of a full season. His 48 appearances and 46 1/3 innings in 2024 both marked career highs at the big-league level.

Had Milwaukee been strictly focused on shedding Williams’ salary, this likely would’ve been a deal built around prospects and/or pre-arbitration players. But MLB Trade Rumors projected both Williams and Cortes to earn approximately $7.7M in their final year of arbitration, meaning Milwaukee’s payroll won’t shift dramatically with this move. (The Yankees are reportedly sending $2M to Milwaukee as part of the trade.) The acquisition of Cortes signals the Brewers’ intention to reallocate resources to their thin rotation and serves as a reminder that they are still in win-now mode, despite dealing away their celebrated closer. With free agency looming next winter, Cortes might be only a short-term solution, but for a team in severe need of quality innings in bulk, the left-hander could prove immensely valuable as manager Pat Murphy’s squad attempts to defend its NL Central crown. Read more. — Shusterman