In his first appearance for the New York Mets, reliever Devin Williams allowed a first-pitch home run on a new cutter during a 14-3 spring training win over the St. Louis Cardinals. The pitcher, who signed a three-year, $51 million contract this offseason, is working to add the cutter and a slider to his primarily fastball-changeup repertoire. Manager Carlos Mendoza described the addition as a luxury to enhance Williams' elite pitching.
The game took place in Jupiter, Florida, on Friday, as part of the Grapefruit League schedule. Williams, entering as a reliever, faced immediate trouble when Cardinals prospect JJ Wetherholt hit a home run on the first pitch of his Mets career. Manager Carlos Mendoza noted it was a “cutter that didn’t cut much.”
Williams, who has relied on his fastball and changeup for over 96.5 percent of his pitches in each of his first seven seasons, is now focusing on developing the cutter and slider. These pitches aim to jam left-handed hitters and induce chases from right-handers. “That one specifically, I was just trying to throw a strike and he jumped on it,” Williams said. “I kind of babied it, trying to just throw it over the plate. He wasn’t giving me strike one.”
Despite the early homer, Williams settled in, retiring the next three batters on just eight pitches, including one more cutter. “This being my first [outing], it was kind of just fill up the strike zone with everything,” he added, “and not really worry about results.”
Mendoza praised Williams' core strengths: “I think it’s more of a luxury. He’s been pretty elite with the fastball-changeup combo. And now adding that cutter/slider, it’s going to get hitters away from sitting on just one particular pitch. That changeup’s elite, but something that goes into lefties, away from righties, and not so much up and down, is important.”
Williams joined the Mets as a free agent to succeed Edwin Díaz as the closer. He will have further opportunities to refine the new pitches during the remainder of spring training.