00:00So Devin Williams, who was one of those players that I would identify as the pinstripes were
00:08not meant for him, which we see that every so often where a player is just sort of not
00:13meant for New York, but he's going to stay in New York and he's going to go to the Mets.
00:18Money talks here, Jack.
00:19I am surprised that Devin Williams got a three-year contract to go play in Queens.
00:25I thought he'd get one or maybe two years.
00:29Again, I don't know how many offers he had that were three years, but usually what happens
00:33with a player like this, just with my history covering this sport, is that some team made
00:37a strong offer with two, the Mets go to a third, and then he signs with the team.
00:42I mean, I don't know that that's how it played out, but that's usually the situation here.
00:46Are you surprised that he got three years to go to the Mets?
00:49A little bit, but to be honest with you, Craig, I thought this was a signaling of baseball
00:53and really player evaluation moving in a different way.
00:56And the reason I say that is the ERA was really bad as a New York Yankee.
01:00And I'm with you.
01:01He didn't feel right in pinstripes.
01:03It didn't work well for him in pinstripes.
01:05I think about Joey Gallo, right?
01:07It was a prodigious power bat with the Texas Rangers.
01:10It just didn't work with the Yankees.
01:12Sonny Gray, another guy who was just acquired by the Boston Red Sox.
01:15It just didn't work with the Yankees.
01:17And that ERA would tell you, and the whip would tell you, it just didn't work with the Yankees.
01:23But there were so many things under the hood.
01:25The whiff rate was still really good.
01:27The changeup still performed pretty well after he made a tweak.
01:30His certain splits against handedness and at time of year, those seem to indicate that it was a little bit more fluky than bad for him.
01:39And I feel like we are seeing the signaling of maybe ERA for relievers might not matter when you're handing out free agent deals.
01:47They're looking at 95 on the fastball, and they're looking at the best changeup in Major League Baseball.
01:52And they still see, other organizations still see, one of the premier strikeout artists in any bullpen in Major League Baseball, and they're paying him like that.
02:00So for me, my mind went two places.
02:03Number one, wow, they really didn't care about the ERA, huh?
02:07And number two, did they just take themselves out of the Edwin Diaz sweepstakes?
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