The New York Yankees wanted to keep Devin Williams… at least enough to pick up the phone. But as Brian Cashman explained at the Winter Meetings, the conversation never turned into anything close to a real negotiation—and the former All-Star reliever wound up crossing town for a three-year, $51 million deal with the New York Mets without ever circling back.
According to Cashman, that wasn’t by accident.
The Yankees’ GM detailed how the Williams process unfolded, and his version of events paints a complicated picture of timing, performance, and a market that moved faster than expected.
A Conversation, but Never a Real Offer
Cashman said he contacted Williams’ agent early in the offseason to express interest in exploring a reunion and asked to be kept informed as the reliever’s market developed. That request went unanswered.
“He never called me back—I’m not saying he needed to,” Cashman said Sunday night at the Winter Meetings. “Bringing him back, I wouldn’t have made the phone call if it wasn’t a possibility, but we didn’t make an offer.”
The message: the Yankees were open to keeping Williams, but not aggressively pursuing him. And once the Mets stepped up with a multi-year deal, the Yankees weren’t in the mix.
It’s a striking contrast to how Cashman operated just a year earlier, when he acquired Williams from the Brewers hoping he’d become the missing bullpen piece. Instead, Williams admitted he struggled to adjust to New York, lost the closer’s job twice, and finished with a 4.79 ERA—numbers he and Cashman both insist are misleading.
“I would agree that his season was better than how the normal numbers look,” Cashman said. “He had a handful of games that destroyed the overall numbers.”
But even a more nuanced evaluation didn’t push the Yankees to offer anything. And without that, Williams didn’t wait around.
A Crosstown Move… and a Reminder of the Yankees’ Bullpen Problem
Williams landing with the Mets only makes the situation sting more for fans, especially at a time when the Yankees are trying to rebuild a bullpen that already lacked high-end swing-and-miss.
Cashman, meanwhile, continues to insist that he’s operating without a hard budget limit from Hal Steinbrenner—despite the owner saying dropping payroll toward $300 million would be “ideal.” The GM maintains that Steinbrenner has not given him any specific number to stay below.
“Hal’s exact words continue to be, ‘Take everything that’s out there to me,’” Cashman said.
But replacing Williams now becomes one more item on a growing to-do list that already includes pursuing Cody Bellinger, balancing a left-leaning lineup, and finding rotation depth behind Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón.
Where Williams once fit into that puzzle is now a Mets problem. The Yankees’ challenge is figuring out why another elite arm they once trusted—and once needed—wound up on the other side of town.
Cashman’s remarks suggest that the Yankees were open to a reunion, but only at their price and their pace. The Mets moved quicker, more aggressively, and with a contract structure the Yankees never considered.
That’s not unusual in free agency. But for a team starving for bullpen reinforcements, watching an ex-closer walk to Queens without even a formal offer feels like a missed opportunity—one Cashman can rationalize, but not erase.
Whether the Yankees ultimately upgrade the bullpen or regret letting Williams go remains to be seen. But the GM made one thing clear: the Yankees weren’t outbid.
They never bid at all.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Yankees Never Bid on Reliever Before Mets Deal, Cashman Says appeared first on Heavy Sports.