NEW YORK (AP) — Devin Williams could be the closer for the New York Mets next season. Or he might be a setup man for Edwin Díaz.
Each possibility sounds intriguing to Williams, who finalized a $51 million, three-year contract with the Mets on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old Díaz is a free agent after going 6-3 with a 1.63 ERA and 28 saves this year. The right-hander has 144 saves in six seasons with the Mets.
“If he comes back, I think we’re going to have a really good back end of the bullpen,” Williams said Friday in his first public comments since joining New York. “More good arms is always a good thing.”
Williams said his mindset won’t be impacted by his role.
“Just being prepared mentally and physically,” Williams said. “If you’re going in before the ninth inning, you just need to be ready earlier. I don’t think that really changes your mindset at all. It’s just a preparation thing.”
Williams said he is working on a cutter and a “gyro slider” to go along with his fastball and famed changeup. He is expected to help stabilize a bullpen that is in flux behind Díaz.
Left-handers Brooks Raley, A.J. Minter and Richard Lovelady as well as right-hander Huascar Brazobán are all under contract, but none of the quartet spent the entire 2025 season with the Mets.
Raley returned in June from Tommy John surgery. Minter didn’t pitch after April 26 due to a torn left lat. Lovelady and Brazoban each spent time with Triple-A Syracuse.
“They’re a team that wants to win,” Williams said. “Steve (Mets owner Steve Cohen) is doing all he can to put a winning product out on the field and I’d love to be a part of that.”
Williams spent last season with the New York Yankees, going 4-6 with a career-worst 4.79 ERA and 18 saves in 22 chances. He lost the closer’s job, regained it and then lost it again before finishing the year with four scoreless outings during the American League playoffs.
The two-time All-Star was traded from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Yankees last December. He acknowledged that the transition from Milwaukee — where he was the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year and twice won the Trevor Hoffman NL Reliever of the Year award while Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns was running the Brewers — was difficult.
But after the Yankees were eliminated from the postseason, Williams said he was open to re-signing with the team.
“It’s familiar now,” Williams said Friday. “I know what I’m going to need to do in order to get to the field, all the things like that. Getting home, just life stuff. So I’ve got all that figured out already. I’m comfortable there.”
Williams is 31-16 with a 2.45 ERA and 86 saves in 308 relief appearances over seven major league seasons. He has 465 strikeouts and 137 walks in 297 2/3 innings.
He becomes the latest member of the Mets brought over from the Yankees organization by Cohen and Stearns in recent years, including outfielder Juan Soto, pitcher Clay Holmes, catcher Luis Torrens and manager Carlos Mendoza.
Williams gets a $6 million signing bonus from the Mets payable in three equal installments on April 1 from 2026-28 and salaries of $15 million annually, of which $5 million per year will be deferred.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
FILE - New York Yankees pitcher Devin Williams delivers against the Toronto Blue Jays during the seventh inning of Game 3 of baseball's American League Division Series, Oct. 7, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
BALTIMORE (AP) — Lamar Jackson and Aaron Rodgers — six MVPs between them — have remarkably never faced each other. It's finally happening this weekend.
Probably.
With these two, you can't be certain of anything at the moment.
Jackson's Baltimore Ravens host Rodgers' Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday with first place in the AFC North on the line, but although they share the division lead, these two rivals are looking pretty shaky. That's in part because of the health and performance of their star quarterbacks.
Rodgers is the NFL's career leader with a 102.4 passer rating. Jackson is second at 102.2. Neither has played like it of late. Jackson was erratic in Baltimore's loss to Cincinnati on Thanksgiving, and although the Ravens (6-6) won five in a row before that, he didn't look nearly as explosive as usual as a scrambler. Jackson missed three games with hamstring problems earlier this season, and since then, he's dealt with ankle, knee and toe issues.
It appeared all might finally be well when he took the field for practice Wednesday. The Ravens had extra rest after facing the Bengals the previous Thursday. But afterward, Jackson's normal media session was put off — a team spokesman said he was getting treatment — and he showed up as limited on the injury report because of his ankle. Then he didn't practice at all Thursday.
On Friday, Jackson was a full participant at practice and told reporters he was ready to go.
Rodgers, meanwhile, played last weekend against Buffalo with a brace on his broken left wrist. He went 10 of 21 for 117 yards — the fewest completions of Rodgers' career in a game he started and finished. The Steelers (6-6) lost, missing a chance to move a game up on Baltimore.
Rodgers didn't practice Wednesday but was a full participant Thursday.
“It’s definitely healing. I appreciate the extra day off,” he said. “You know, I love the practice, so I hate missing practice, but dealing with what I’m dealing with, it helps to get another day without any pounding on the bones in there. So, we’ll see what happens.”
Rodgers faced the Ravens in 2021 while with Green Bay, but Jackson missed that game with an injury.
This is the 38th meeting between Ravens coach John Harbaugh and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. Only George Halas and Curly Lambeau (49) have faced off more times.
This is also the latest in the season the two have met with neither team boasting a winning record. They were both 5-6 when they played in Week 13 in 2013.
Of course, as frustrating as this year has been, the winner of this game will probably feel pretty good about its playoff chances by Sunday night.
“I think you never would have envisioned 6-6 at this point with the expectations," Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith said. “But at the end of the day, if you told me, Week 14, at the beginning of the season, you’ll be tied for first place, you control your own destiny, I’m signing myself up for that every day of the week and twice on Sunday.”
The last time Pittsburgh was in Baltimore, the Ravens gashed the Steelers for 299 yards rushing while breezing to victory in the first round of the 2024 playoffs.
The Steelers used a significant amount of resources in the offseason in an attempt to become better equipped to stop the run, drafting defensive linemen Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black and outside linebacker Jack Sawyer and signing Daniel Ekuale in free agency, among other moves.
The results have been mixed at best and may have hit a low point last week against Buffalo, when the Bills piled up 249 yards rushing, the most the Steelers have given up to an opponent at home in more than 50 years.
Now Jackson and Derrick Henry are looming. Pittsburgh reviewed video from the playoff loss this week. Nearly 11 months later, the sting hasn't gone away.
“I mean it still sucks,” outside linebacker Alex Highsmith said. “To finish the way we did last year ... to allow 300 rushing yards is truly unacceptable. So that’s something I think that’s fueling us for this week.”
Pittsburgh's midseason swoon may have hit its nadir in the fourth quarter against Buffalo last week, when the fans booed the playing of “Renegade," long a late-game staple designed to pump up the defense.
There were also chants for Tomlin's firing and multiple former Steelers — quarterback Ben Roethlisberger chief among them — saying it might be time for the team to move on from Tomlin after 19 seasons.
Tomlin shares the frustration of the fan base, though his players have done their best to put on ear muffs.
“I don't worry about anybody who's not in the locker room,” said longtime defensive captain Cam Heyward, the second-longest tenured player in franchise history. “It's not a diss at them. I think we've just got to worry about the guys in here and focus on the job at hand.”
If Jackson is sidelined at any point, backup Tyler Huntley already led the Ravens to a big win over Chicago earlier this season when Baltimore was 1-5. Huntley has faced Rodgers before. He played in that 2021 game for Baltimore — a 31-30 loss to the Packers. And when he was with Miami last season, Huntley started the finale for the Dolphins. They lost 32-20 to Rodgers and the New York Jets.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) walks to the sideline to be check out for injury during the second half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) is pressured by Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai (58) during the second half of an NFL football game, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
