It doesn’t have to be like 2024, when the Yankees — to use Aaron Boone’s word at the time — got “creative” with their closer role as Clay Holmes struggled and Boone was content with entering the postseason without a true closer. They mixed. They matched. And then by the time October arrived, Luke Weaver stuck as their ninth-inning arm.
Last season, the Yankees didn’t initially have a proven closer outside of Holmes, so when the now-Mets starter blew an MLB-high 13 saves — four more than the reliever with the second-most — and was relegated to earlier innings, they stared down a dire bullpen reality that likely wouldn’t have been sustainable throughout their postseason run without Weaver’s emergence.
Even back in April this year, when Devin Williams’ opening act in The Bronx featured 10 earned runs in 12 innings and Boone temporarily demoted him, the Yankees were already in a better situation. Weaver was a proven option, and the Yankees didn’t need to dawdle.
By that logic, then, and with the season already in August and their playoff hopes increasingly in jeopardy, the Yankees couldn’t wait before demoting Williams again — even as his combustions continue to burn them.
