You have to give to get, Brian Cashman said multiple times during a Zoom call shortly after the Yankees acquired Devin Williams on Friday, and he’s been trying to do the former with Milwaukee for ‘what feels like years’ before finally landing the All-Star closer today.
“We’ve been talking to Milwaukee for what feels like years, seemingly every offseason and spring training and trade deadline,” Cashman said. “Nice to finally find a match. He has a swing-and-miss, gets soft contact, ground balls, and he’s been consistent for quite some time now. And he’s not afraid of the big stage, so we’re looking forward to adding him into the mix. He’s a year away from free agency, but he’s someone we’ve tried to acquire for a number of years.”
Williams has a ‘big’ fastball and ‘devastating’ change-up, those adjectives used by the GM to describe his new fireballer, and while it was tough to part with a successful starter in Nestor Cortes and a top prospect in Caleb Durbin, you again have to give to get – and just because a player has less team control doesn’t always mean the price drops.
“The job is always to find as many quality talented players as we can to give to Aaron Boone on both sides of the ball, and this is a high-quality arm to fit in with the bullpen, where we lost some key players who got big outs in the postseason,” Cashman said. “(What you give) depends on the player. You just saw today two players in their walk years got traded, and both organizations gave up a lot to get a lot, and last year with San Diego we gave up a lot to get a lot. It just depends on where you are and the competition with that player.”
Cashman had not talked internally, and ‘definitely not’ externally, about an extension for Williams, but for right now, he’s in the bullpen – and while it’s easy to assume he will be the closer with Luke Weaver back to a fireman role, the GM is focused on the acquisition, and will leave deployment decisions to Boone and the coaching staff.
“My job is to import as many quality players as I can, and all I care about is closing the game down and shortening it; who is doing it and when is for the manager and coaching staff to decide,” Cashman said. “There’s some vacancy (in the bullpen), and we like what we have on the roster, but we have to give Aaron Boone and Matt Blake more options. We believe we’re better now than we were earlier today.”