NL ROY voting throws even more salt in the Yankees' Devin Williams wound

When Brian Cashman dealt for Devin Williams last offseason, he probably wasn't thinking that Williams would likely be finding a new home just a year later. No, instead, he was probably convinced that he'd just found the New York Yankees' most dominant closer since Mariano Rivera hung up his spikes.

To say it didn't go according to plan is an understatement. But more than the 4.79 ERA and unfulfilled promise, what stings the most is what the Yankees gave up, and also what that loss forced them to do.

Heading back to Milwaukee in the Williams trade package were Nestor Cortes, who, even with all the injuries suffered in spring training, didn't have much of a place in the rotation, as well as young infielder Caleb Durbin.

Durbin was the real loss, and his third-place finish in the National League Rookie of the Year voting brings into clearer focus just how badly the Yankees screwed this up.

Caleb Durbin's Rookie of the Year showing highlights the painful domino effect the Devin Williams deal had on the Yankees

The Yankees' mandate in recent years has been to get younger, more athletic, better defensively, and exercise some financial prudence. After years of aging and statuesque players on bloated contracts have bogged them down literally and metaphorically, it's a path that made sense.

However, in practice, it hasn't gone all that well, and decisions like the Devin Williams trade are the exact reason why.

Durbin settled in at the hot corner for the Brewers, logging 136 games with a .256/.334/.387 line,11 homers, and 18 homers while two outs above average and five defensive runs saved at third.

The Yankees, meanwhile, muddled through a first half that included a rotation of Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza, and DJ LeMahieu (bumping Jazz Chisholm Jr. to third) that necessitated the panic trade for Ryan McMahon at the deadline.

That came at a cost, in more ways than one. In order to add McMahon's money, the Yankees give up a promising young left-handed pitching prospect - Griffin Herring, who upped his game further by bumping his K/9 from 8.87 with Hi-A Hudson Valley to 14.10 once he hit Colorado's farm system. Combined, he posted a 1.89 ERA and 2.74 FIP across 119.1 total minor league innings.

Meanwhile, the Yankees get to absorb the remaining two years and $32 million for a player who produced a .641 OPS for them down the stretch.

All told, McMahon (counting both his time in Colorado and with the Yankees) plus Williams produced 2.0 bWAR. Durbin alone managed 2.8 bWAR for the Brewers. Ouch.

Hindsight is 20/20, but the Yankees clearly would've been better off hanging onto Durbin and forgoing the Williams' deal. While Williams will end up elsewhere in 2026, the Yankees have to contend with the fact that they might need to add a right-handed platoon partner for McMahon at the very least, if not deal him altogether.

Not only that, but they'll also need to seek out some contact-oriented bats to offset the club's strikeout problem. They could have had all of that in Durbin, who struck out a minuscule 9.9% in 2025 and would've cost pennies while being under team control through 2031.

There's a lesson to be learned here. Leave the big money, multi-year expenditures for stars, rather than simply average players like McMahon, recognize the youth and athleticism already in the system, and for Pete's sake, tread carefully with small market hurlers, especially those as volatile as relievers can be.

There's a good chance Durbin outproduces McMahon next season, and he's already been more valuable than McMahon and Williams were combined to the Yankees in 2025.