New York Yankees Star Reliever Should Become Closer After Historic Start

The New York Yankees made a few major additions to their pitching staff this offseason to help put the team over the top.

In free agency, they signed Max Fried away from the Atlanta Braves, agreeing to a historic eight-year, $218 million deal. It is the largest contract that a left-handed pitcher has signed in baseball history.

Also over the winter, the team acquired All-Star closer Devin Williams from the Milwaukee Brewers to help put their bullpen over the top.

Fried has been everything the Yankees had hoped he would be, anchoring the starting rotation with ace Gerrit Cole being sidelined after having to undergo Tommy John surgery in spring training.

On the opposite end of the spectrum has been Williams, whose tenure in New York has gotten off to a brutal start.

Things got worse on Saturday when he imploded against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Williams was charged with four earned runs, upping his ERA to 9.00 on the season.

He has not provided the kind of impact that the team was hoping for, looking far from the dominant, award-winning closer he was with the Brewers.

As he acclimates himself to his new team, the Yankees should consider moving into lower leverage situations until he figures things out because they have a relief pitcher who is off to a historic start that needs to pitch when it matters most.

That would be Luke Weaver, who took over last season as the closer from Clay Holmes down the stretch and was excellent.

He threw 84 innings in 62 appearances with 102 strikeouts, a 2.89 ERA and four saves. In the postseason, he upped his performance, making 12 appearances, throwing 15.1 innings with 16 strikeouts, a 1.79 ERA and four saves.

Coming into the 2025 season, he was in a high-leverage role as the setup man in front of Williams, but he needs to be made into the closer for the time being given the historic start he is off to.

Following his appearance on April 18 against the Rays, Weaver’s stats were eight appearances with 10 innings pitched with 11 strikeouts. He had yet to have a run scored against him, giving up only two hits.

The only blemish on his stat line was issuing five walks, but it had yet to come back and hurt him.

That put him in a league of his own, making franchise history.

Weaver is the first New York player to allow zero runs, two or fewer hits and face 35+ batters in the first eight games of a season.