Devin Williams said he liked his time in New York, but it wasn’t the Yankees he ended up signing with. Williams joins the likes of former Bombers in Clay Holmes, Luis Severino, Frankie Montas, and Harrison Bader, who went over to the other borough in Flushing by inking a deal with the New York Mets.
With Williams gone, it might open the door for another star reliever to move across town, in an interborough tit for tat. That reliever is Edwin Diaz, and the veteran closer for the Mets has already been linked to the Yanks.
An Unlikely Pairing
According to Pat Ragazzo of SI earlier this month, the Yankees are one of the teams in on him.
“After an up-and-down 2024 season, Diaz returned to dominant form last year by going 28-for-31 on save chances with a 1.63 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 66.1 innings. The Mets, Yankees, San Diego Padres, and Texas Rangers are all expected to be in the mix for Diaz’s services.”
Swap Edwin Diaz to the Bronx?
Then this entrance may actually be cool
pic.twitter.com/8pkk3SZrkV
— 4 Train Savages (@FourSavages) December 2, 2025
Throwing $100+ million to a pitcher who goes an inning at a time is a hard sell, especially when, over the years, the Yankees have been able to turn no-name arms into late-inning studs. That all changed last year, though, when the bullpen’s 4.37 ERA was 23rd in MLB. The only teams worse than them were the teams that missed the playoffs, like the Nationals, Rockies, Angels, Orioles, and Twins.
Even with that price tag, Diaz would be a quick fix for the Yankee woes in high leverage situations. Last year, Diaz pitched 66.1 innings, having allowed 12 earned runs, striking out 98. Diaz was one of seven realizers with at least 60 innings pitched with an ERA under two last season.
Pair him with David Bednar, that’s a mighty eight and ninth inning tandem. Unless both he and Diaz hit a wall, whatever ills the Yankees had in their pen would be cured – at least somewhat. It would be a matter of bridging the gap to them with Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon out for the start of the season.
The Negatives of a Diaz Signing
The problem with Diaz is the price tag. This isn’t about saying he isn’t worth the money or feeling bad for billionaire Hal Steinbrenner for shelling out a few bucks. Diaz will command a huge deal, and how will that affect the Yankees down the line as far as future spending goes?
Steinbrenner will always draw a line in the sand, and it doesn’t feel like he would ever go to the Dodgers and the Mets as consistently as they have. Does signing Diaz hurt them in signing players down the line?
The Yankees gave big money to Adam Ottavino and Zach Britton before the 2019 season. It does feel like going down the expensive reliever rabbit hole hearkens back to that, when they could have potentially put that money into other avenues like a Michael Brantley, or offering a mega contract to Bryce Harper and Manny Machado to have a more consistent bat around Aaron Judge, something the captain has been missing.