Devin Williams opened his 2026 season with the Mets by not allowing a run over his first five appearances, a clean start that has already looked different from the version of him the Yankees got last year. Carlos Mendoza went to Williams in the eighth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers last Wednesday night with the Mets trailing 3-1, and the reliever held the line in the middle of a seven-game losing streak.
That is the latest twist in a career that has moved in sharp turns depending on the uniform. Williams spent six seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he allowed 48 earned runs and built a 2.52 career ERA with 88 saves before a one-year stint with the Yankees that went much rougher, with 33 earned runs, a 4.79 ERA and 10 blow-up outings. He became a free agent last winter and chose to reunite with David Stearns, now the Mets’ President of Baseball Operations, on a three-year, $51 million deal.
The contrast matters because the Mets did not pay for a middle reliever with one obvious track record. They paid for a pitcher whose results have swung hard with context, and Stearns is betting the Milwaukee version was the truer one. That connection has given the move extra weight from the start, especially since Stearns helped oversee Williams’ rise with the Brewers before bringing him back into his orbit in New York.
Williams’ first week in Queens has offered the kind of early return the Mets needed after a winter built around hope more than certainty. The Dodgers outing did not come in a low-pressure spot, either. Mendoza called on him when the Mets were down two runs and chasing a stop to a skid that had already stretched to seven games. Williams did not just inherit a clean inning; he inherited a game that was slipping and a dugout looking for something that would hold.
That tension sits at the center of the deal. The Mets paid $51 million for steadiness, but Williams arrived with a recent season in which the damage came fast when things went wrong. If his first five outings are a sign of a reset rather than a brief pause, the Mets may have added one of the few relievers who can change a game without ever closing it. If not, the comparison between Milwaukee and New York will keep hanging over every eighth-inning call Mendoza makes.
