The Mets reached the All-Star break in a place they haven’t been since 1995: 17 games under .500. That number says plenty on its own, but Sunday’s loss to the Red Sox told the story even better. The offense never showed up, Francisco Lindor’s error opened the door, and Devin Williams finished the job by blowing another save.
Williams got a rough break on Lindor’s miscue, which should have turned the inning into a double-play situation. But the inning unraveled after that. Williams issued back-to-back walks to force in a run, then allowed a bloop single that brought home the tying run.
It was his third blown save of the season, and the numbers around him are ugly: a 4.83 ERA, a 1.76 WHIP, and a pace that points to minus-0.7 WAR. Even with that in hand, interim manager Andy Green said after the game that the Mets are not thinking about a change at closer.
Andy Green is not considering moving Devin Williams out of the closer role: pic.twitter.com/g8iuSe8a2W
That stance fits the way the Mets have handled things this season. The club has leaned hard on track record and job security, even when the results have gone sideways, and that lack of accountability has been a big part of why the team has spent so much of the last 13 months in this spot.
The frustrating part is that the Mets do have another option.
Luke Weaver has been one of their best arms for most of the year, posting a 1.85 ERA and carrying a scoreless streak that lasted nearly two months before the Red Sox snapped it over the weekend. With the trade deadline coming, he also looks like a real candidate to move if the Mets decide to go the 2023 route and sell off pieces.
If that happens, giving Weaver the ninth inning could help the Mets showcase him for teams that need bullpen help, including the Pirates or Marlins. And even if he stays, there’s still a case for making the switch and seeing what the late innings look like with Weaver closing and Williams working in a setup role.
That arrangement isn’t new. The Yankees used both pitchers that way at times last season, and it appeared to help Williams settle in and pitch better later in the year.
The advanced numbers suggest Williams is throwing the ball well enough, but the results haven’t matched. A move out of the closer role could give him a chance to sort things out in a lower-pressure spot and maybe put him in position to reclaim the job later.
The hesitation is obvious. A switch would mean admitting the Williams plan hasn’t worked, and it could also risk interrupting Weaver’s momentum before a crucial deadline. But the Mets’ reluctance to make hard changes has already helped land them in this mess, and sticking with the same setup would just be more of the same.
Closers lose jobs all the time. This would not be some dramatic, irreversible confession. It would simply be a team trying something different instead of repeating a formula that keeps producing the same bad ending.
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