Yankees GM Brian Cashman shared some surprising details about two former pitchers during the Winter Meetings. Both stories show how things don’t always work out as planned in baseball. Devin Williams joined the Mets last week on a three-year, $51 million deal after spending just one season with the Yankees.
According to the NY Post, Cashman said he talked to Williams’ agent once this offseason and asked him to keep the Yankees updated on Williams’ market. But the agent never called back. The Yankees got Williams from the Brewers last December, hoping he would make their bullpen better. But Williams struggled at first and lost his closer job twice before finishing the season on a good note. He ended up with a 4.79 ERA, though Cashman believes he pitched better than those numbers show.
“I would agree that his season was better than how the normal numbers look,” Cashman said. “I would agree he had a handful of games that destroyed the overall numbers.” Cashman added that bringing Williams back was possible, which is why he reached out to the agent. But the Yankees never made an official offer, and Williams never called back to ask for one.
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Cashman says Williams’ real performance was better than the stats suggested
The other story involves Sonny Gray, who was recently traded to the Red Sox. After the trade, Gray said he was happy to be “in a place where it’s easy to hate the Yankees.” He also claimed he never wanted to join the Yankees in the first place. Athletes revealing unexpected personal details isn’t new, as Neymar’s former teammate exposed unusual training habits recently.
But Cashman said that’s not what Gray told people before the trade. According to Cashman, Gray told several people, including a Yankees staff member who was his former college roommate, that he wanted to be a Yankee. The Yankees traded for him in 2017 based on those comments.
It wasn’t until after the 2018 trade deadline that Gray told Cashman the truth. In a private meeting, Gray admitted he never wanted to be in New York and hated it there. He said he just stayed in his hotel room and couldn’t stand the city.
When Cashman asked why Gray lied about wanting to be a Yankee, Gray blamed his agent. He said his agent, Bo McKinnis, told him to lie because saying he didn’t want to play in certain places would hurt his future free agency chances. Gray admitted he followed that advice and misled everyone about his true feelings the whole time. The Yankees fanbase can be intense, and fans throwing cans at Blue Jays players’ families shows how hostile the atmosphere can get.
Published: Dec 8, 2025 05:00 pm