Fantasy Baseball: What To Do With Struggling Closers Devin Williams & Emmanuel Clase

The front-end closer options in 2025 have underperformed expectations by a wide margin, highlighted by the early-season failure of Devin Williams and Emmanuel Clase. 

Devin Williams, New York Yankees

Over his last seven appearances, the Yankees' expected stud reliever blew up in three games (10 runs, six hits, and three walks over 1.2 innings with two strikeouts). He’s two earned runs away from matching his career high (15), which was done over 54.0 innings. The starting point of his failure has been his walks (11 over 12.2 innings), but Williams has also been much easier to hit (.265 BAA – .157 over his previous 241 games). 

Williams has eight walks and five strikeouts vs. left-handed batters, over 20 at-bats, and righties are hitting .310 against him. His four-seamer fastball and cutter are down more than one mile per hour from 2025, but his best pitch (changeup – .180 BAA) remains a winning pitch, especially vs. lefties (.125 BAA).

Locating his fastball (.432 BAA) has been his issue. He issued eight walks with six strikeouts with the pitch. Williams had more success with his four-seamer in 2023 (.130 BAA) and 2022 (.090 BAA). 

The road back to trusting closing for Williams starts with better location of his fastball in and out of the strike zone. His first pitch strike rate (50.8 – 57.6 in his career) is a significant issue. That being said, perhaps he's on the mend after escaping a bases loaded, no-out jam with three consecutive strikeouts two nights ago.

Emmanuel Clase, Cleveland Guardians

As for Clase, he’s made progress in his last six outings (one run and five hits over six innings with seven strikeouts), leading to a win and four consecutive converted saves. His command (three walks) remains on point, but batters have hit .362 against him (.194 before this season) with 24% of his hits allowed (25) going for extra bases. 

His first pitch strike rate (67.1) is the best of his career. Clase continues to have elite velocity on his cutter (99.0 mph – top usage pitch), but batters have a high batting average (.333) against it, compared to his last three seasons (.225, .193, and .259). 

Clase won’t reach his elite stats in ERA and WHIP, but he can still be a fantasy asset just by filling the save box. His strikeout rate (8.8) is higher than the past two seasons (7.9 and 8.0), which is a positive sign. With 10 shutout innings with two hits allowed and no walks, his ERA (3.42) and WHIP (1.139) would move into a respectable area. 

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