After a blown save on June 13, Devin Williams has been lights-out on the mound for the Milwaukee Brewers.
Since then, he has recorded four saves and picked up a win as well in five appearances.
The 2020 National League Rookie of the Year and Relief Pitcher of the Year has shown why he’s one of the best relief pitchers in the game today.
And he’s continuously been effective out there on the mound ever since joining the Brewers.
On the season, he has a 4-1 record with a 1.69 ERA with 14 saves and 35 strikeouts through 27 games.
The Brewers are getting more and more comfortable utilizing Williams in that closer role. Last season he had a total of 15 saves, and this year he will certainly surpass that number.
This season, Milwaukee finds themselves in a tight race in the NL Central Division and having a pitcher like Williams who can close out games is a win for the Brewers.
Williams has been a headache for hitters at the plate his entire career and he seems to get better and better over time.
He has an opportunity to be named an all-star for the second straight season.
The 28-year-old is already doing impressive things out there and three to four years from now, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him still dominating.
Milwaukee definitely made the right decision in selecting him in the second round of the 2013 draft.
10 years ago, Milwaukee took a chance on Williams
This year marks a decade since the Brewers drafted Williams. Time really does fly by. He had his sights on being a first-round pick, but that was not the case.
“We sat there for, like, five hours and waited,” Williams said in an mlb.com article. “It was all my friends and family. I was told I would be going in the first round, and then it was damn near the end of the second round when I finally went.”
It’s definitely been a rollercoaster ride for Williams, who dealt with Tommy John Surgery in 2017 and facing some adversity once returning to the mound the next year.
But Williams did not give up, he battled through the struggles and ended up making the All-Star Futures Game and was called up to the big leagues in 2019. The rest is history.
Williams was not expecting to be drafted by the Brewers back in 2013.
“That was the last team I thought was going to take me,” he said. “I do remember [Brewers scout] Harvey Kuenn Jr. coming to the house to meet with me and my mom. And after the Draft, he told me that [then-scouting director] Bruce Seid and [longtime Brewers executive] Gord Ash had come to watch me pitch in our district final. I guess that was the game that they decided they were going to try and take me.”
Fast forward to 2023 and Williams has become one of the Brewers’ top relief pitchers and one of the game’s best.
It’s going to be an exciting finish to the NL Central race and expect Milwaukee to rely on Williams to continue to finish out those close games.
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