The Mets placed Devin Williams on the 15-day injured list Monday with a right shoulder strain, confirming what had been brewing for over a week. Williams was unavailable last week with what the team called right arm fatigue, came back Friday in Pittsburgh, gave up 2 runs in a non-save spot, and 3 days later landed on the shelf anyway. MLB Trade Rumors was among the first to put the news out.
This was supposed to be the move that locked down the back of New York's bullpen. Williams signed a 3-year, $51 million deal with the Mets over the winter after years of dominance in Milwaukee, where he ran a 1.70 ERA from 2020-24 and turned the changeup into a signature weapon. Instead, his first season in Queens has been a grind: a 4.66 ERA in 42 appearances, even with 16 saves and a 3-2 record to show for it. The strikeout rate has slipped, he's had trouble stranding runners, and now the shoulder issue caps off a rocky debut year.
The timing stings. New York gutted its setup crew at the trade deadline, shipping out Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley, and other relief options before Aug. 3. That left Williams as the last proven arm holding the pen together, and now he's out too, at least for the 15-day minimum, with the Mets calling the absence "fairly brief" for now.
So who closes games in the meantime? There isn't a clean answer. The Mets have talked about deploying Kodai Senga in high-leverage spots, but the rest of the bullpen is a patchwork of waiver claims and minor league signings with an average age of 29.5 and next to no save experience between them. That's not the profile you want holding leads down the stretch of a playoff race.
For a team fighting to hold position in a crowded field, losing your ninth-inning guy, even a shaky one, is a real problem. The Mets will lean on matchups and by-committee arms until Williams is cleared, and every save opportunity between now and his return is going to feel like a coin flip.