{"id":584958,"date":"2026-02-21T15:15:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T15:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584958\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T15:15:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T15:15:27","slug":"devin-williams-believes-mental-toughness-will-help-him-in-first-mets-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584958\/","title":{"rendered":"Devin Williams believes \u2018mental toughness\u2019 will help him in first Mets season"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 There wasn\u2019t much good to take from Devin Williams\u2019 lone season with the Yankees<\/a>, a season in which he lost the closer job twice and hardly resembled the dominant reliever he\u2019d been for most of his career in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

But as Williams settles into his new home with the Mets, he believes at least one good thing from last year follows him to Queens.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMental toughness,\u2019\u2019 Williams said following the team\u2019s workout Friday at Clover Park. \u201cI wasn\u2019t executing and I was getting bad results. It got pretty tough there, but I got through it and was throwing the ball really well by the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams is hoping the fact he finished the regular season with nine straight scoreless appearances, mostly setting up closer David Bednar, and four more in the playoffs, proves that he was able to put his 2025 struggles behind him.<\/p>\n

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\u201cProbably that last stretch of games, that was me, that\u2019s my standard,\u2019\u2019 Williams said. \u201cI was executing the way I need to.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New York Mets Pitcher Devin Williams throws live batting practice during Spring Training at Clover Field, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

And now he\u2019s back closing games, with Edwin D\u00edaz having left for the Dodgers shortly after Williams signed with the Mets.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s ready for the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re gonna fail,\u2019\u2019 Williams said. \u201c[Stuff] got really bad for a little bit last year, but I\u2019m still me. I\u2019m still the same guy. I\u2019m still really good at this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been a guy,\u201d Carlos Mendoza said of Williams\u2019 status as one of the top closers in the game. \u201cLast year wasn\u2019t easy for him at the beginning and he made some adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Last year\u2019s experience may end up helping him going forward. \u201cYou\u2019re always going to have adversity,\u2019\u2019 Williams said. \u201cThat was the toughest it\u2019s been for me in the big leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he noted it wasn\u2019t the lowest point of his career, instead pointing to 2018, when he was still in the lower level of the minors with the Brewers, coming off Tommy John surgery and had a terrible season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were times I was ready to quit in \u201918,\u2019\u2019 Williams said. \u201cI came back from [surgery] and I was terrible and wanted to go home. Every day wasn\u2019t good. But I got through that, got to the big leagues [in 2019] and the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New York Mets Pitcher Devin Williams walks through the dugout during Spring Training at Clover Field, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, in Port St. Lucie, FL. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

Just as he hopes 2025 is history for him, too.<\/p>\n

It will take some time before Brett Baty gets some reps in right field, where he will be in the mix for playing time once his balky right hamstring fully heals.<\/p>\n

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Mendoza said Friday that they are focused on getting Baty reps in the infield \u2014 where he has been working at first base \u2014 before getting him in the outfield.<\/p>\n

But Mendoza is confident Baty will be able to make the transition for one main reason. \u201cThe athleticism,\u2019\u2019 the manager said.<\/p>\n

And he pointed to what Baty was able to do last year as a reason, as Baty moved from third base to second without much of an issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know which way it was gonna go when we asked him to play second base,\u2019\u2019 Mendoza said. \u201cIt\u2019s not an easy position, especially when you\u2019re used to playing on the left side and a corner position.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Baty \u201cmade that transition easily,\u2019\u2019 according to Mendoza.<\/p>\n

Baty played some outfield in the minors, most recently starting games there in 2022 with Double-A Binghamton.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s familiar with the outfield,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cNow we\u2019ve got to get him reads with angles. He enjoys being that type of player and he takes it personally.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 There wasn\u2019t much good to take from Devin Williams\u2019 lone season with the Yankees,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,358,136,1443,75948,1100,83,39,1087,101,843,4,1690,61,2548,4203,151,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-584958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brett-baty","10":"tag-brewers","11":"tag-carlos-mendoza","12":"tag-clover-field","13":"tag-david-bednar","14":"tag-devin-williams","15":"tag-dodgers","16":"tag-edwin-diaz","17":"tag-mets","18":"tag-milwaukee","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-new-york","21":"tag-new-york-mets","22":"tag-newyork","23":"tag-newyorkmets","24":"tag-spring-training","25":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116109282052329088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}