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The creation of one of the best pitches in the majors, new Yankees closer Devin Williams ’ changeup with screwball characteristics, traces back to his childhood in suburban St. Louis. Before the Airbender .
.. “It’s something that I developed in the backyard playing catch with my friends,” the right-hander said Tuesday in a Zoom call with Yankees beat writers.
Back then, Williams was a kid who threw harder than everyone else that he played with and against, so he relied on fastballs to dominate. TO PURCHASE YANKEES TICKETS, VISIT: VIVIDSEATS , TICKETMATER and STUBHUB Back then, his second-best pitch was just a good changeup, and nothing really changed until spring training 2019 when he was one of the Brewers’ best prospects. Looking for more movement with the pitch, he switched from a two-seam grip to a four-seam “circle change” grip in which his thumb and index finger made a circle.
The first time that Williams tested it against a hitter was during a live batting practice that spring. The hitter in the batter’s box was a left-handed-hitting fellow prospect, outfielder Trent Grisham. After seeing a circle change, Grisham called out to Williams that he noticed the grip change indeed had created a higher spin rate.
“So then that became my out pitch, my go to,” Williams said. Williams wound up getting a first promotion to the big leagues in 2019 and he did OK pitching to a 3.95 ERA in 13 games.
The next year, with the baseball season in limbo due to the COVID shutdown, Williams tinkered again. This time he played around with the velocity of his circle change. “I was still throwing it 88-89 mph, and then during COVID I was doing live ABs back at home,” Williams said.
“That’s where I started to realize if I threw it slower and spun it more, it got more movement and was a much better pitch. So that’s how that happened.” Williams’ slower circle changeup has become so tough on hitters since 2020 that the pitch has its own cool name, the Airbender.
It was coined by famed social media pitching analyst Rob Friedman, who is known as Pitching Ninja. Mixing fastballs that average 95 mph with 84 mph Airbenders, Williams has been as good as any reliever in the majors. In 241 career games, he has a 27-10 record with a 1.
83 ERA and 375 strikeouts in 235.2 innings. He also has 68 saves, 59 of them coming in 66 opportunities after he took over the Brewers’ closer role on Aug.
1, 2022, when Josh Hader was traded. In 2020, Williams held opposing hitters to two hits in 62 at-bats with 41 strikeouts on changeups. In the last five seasons, opponents batted .
130 on changeups with 242 strikeouts in 530 at-bats. Williams was the NL Rookie of the Year in 2000, an NL All-Star in 2022 and 2023, and excellent again this past season after missing the first four months recovering from two stress fractures in his back. In 22 games, he pitched to a 1.
25 ERA with 14 saves in 15 chances. But after Williams’ season ended poorly — the Brewers were eliminated with a Game 3 Wild Card Series loss to the Mets after he entered in the ninth with a 2-0 lead and allowed four runs — he expected to be traded. He can be a free agent after the 2025 season and the small-market Brewers never approached him about a contract extension.
While Williams was hearing from his agent that the Dodgers were expected to acquire him, he was traded to the Yankees last Friday for left-hander Nestor Cortes and second baseman prospect Caleb Durbin. BUY ANTHONY VOLPE’S JERSEY HERE Williams is fired up about joining the Yankees because, as he put it, “there’s no bigger team in baseball.” He’s excited about being the closer for a franchise that had the best closer ever, Mariano Rivera, and happy to be reunited with a former Brewers bullpen-mate that he calls a friend, Jake Cousins.
Williams also is a teammate again to the hitter who first noticed his new changeup grip was a key to the invention of his Airbender. While meeting with Yankees writers, Williams was asked if he ever thanked Grisham, a backup center fielder last season who may begin 2025 as a regular. “No, to be honest,” Williams said with a smile.
“I don’t think I’ve ever told him that. I’m sure he’s heard by now. That’s something that people have talked about.
Yeah, thanks Trent.” Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected] .
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