My Thoughts on the Devin Williams Trade
A blog by Will at Overdue Sports
The Yankees might’ve missed on the Soto Sweepstakes, but they are certainly adding fire power to their roster signing Max Fried and now trading for Devin Williams. Many people out there (Sam) may tell you this is a fleece, but I like this return for Milwaukee.
The first piece in return for Williams is LHP Nestor Cortes. We all know him for his funky timing games and mustache, but he fits perfectly into what the Brewers look for in budget pitchers; three types of fastballs. Cortes uses a 4-seam, sinker, and cutter 73.6% of the time, and I anticipate the Brewers exploiting his arsenal in their pitching lab. Cortes has had two down years after a monster 2022, but in 2024 he tallied a 9-10 record, 3.77 ERA, 1.15 WHIP with 162 strikeouts over 174.1 innings. Cortes fills a big gap in the Brewers rotation and I have a good feeling they’ll get him back to great numbers like what they did with Frankie Montas in the back half of 2024. Cortes also comes with a cheap contract owed just $8.3M in 2025, but will become a UFA in 2026. That’s the biggest issue I have with this deal, only one year of control over Cortes.
If you recall a few years ago, the Brewers traded elite closer Josh Hader in return for Estuery Ruiz, Robert Gasser, Taylor Rogers, and Dinelson Lamet. To me, this is a similar attempt, but with better pieces.
The second piece of the deal is INF Caleb Durbin, who can bounce around anywhere in the infield. With the departure of Willy Adames, and big prospects in Cooper Pratt and Jesus Made not ready for the Pros yet, Durbin fills a much needed role. Joey Ortiz will likely take over shortstop, Durbin can play 3B, and Gold Glove winner Brice Turang will stick at 2B. Rhys Hoskins returns, and I anticipate some playing time between the corners from Tyler Black, although I could see one if not both of them getting moved before the start of the 2025 season. While Durbin is 25 with no MLB experience, he jumped from A-AAA through 2024 slashing .275/.388/.451 with 25 doubles, 10 HR and 60 RBI. He also struck out just 9.9% of the time, and swiped 31 bases. An athletic infielder who is very toolsy across the board with ability to go gap-to-gap. Finally, he lit up the Arizona Fall League this year, racking up a .976 OPS, with 5 doubles, 5 HR, 21 RBI and 29 stolen bases over 21 games, and struck out just 6 times in 117 PA. I really like what I see out of him, and the versatility will be great for the Brewers coming into 2025.
You may ask me; “Will, what are the Brewers going to do about a closer this year?” Well, let introduce you to Craig Yoho aka ‘Devin Williams part 2.’ I’ll do a deep dive on him later, but he’s been one of my favorite pitching prospects in the MLB over the last few seasons.
At the end of the day, Williams was always going to get moved this Winter, and the Brewers got much better from this trade and addressed some holes in the roster, and I still like this move a lot.
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