Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishBALTIMORE — On Friday night, at a sold-out Yankee Stadium, fans voiced their displeasure with closer Devin Williams by chanting, “We want (Luke) Weaver.” The chant was so loud that manager Aaron Boone felt compelled to have a one-on-one conversation with Williams about the noise surrounding his brutal start in pinstripes.The Yankees gave their fans their wish two days later by officially removing Williams from the closer role while he works through lower-leverage situations to regain his confidence. It was impossible for anyone in the stadium Friday night to not hear the dissatisfaction with Williams, but Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake doesn’t think it’s conducive for making Williams or any other player, for that matter, to play better.“It definitely doesn’t help,” Blake said of the negative fan response. “I think we’ve seen that over the years, whether it’s Clay (Holmes), (Aroldis Chapman), or whoever. Those things don’t help the situation get better. That’s the unfortunate part of how excited our fan base is when we’re winning, but the other side is it can be very polarizing.“They voice their opinion when things aren’t going well. I think guys just have to learn how to navigate that. We’ve been hit or miss with that over the years. I think the earlier we can nip that in the bud and get him into a spot where we can stabilize — I felt like, Boonie, us, we all talked about it. Like, let’s not continue to push this if we don’t have to.”When the Yankees removed Holmes from the closer role in September last season, both Blake and Boone referenced “the noise” surrounding the reliever. Yankees fans were fed up with Holmes leading the league in blown saves and wanted a new option to close games. The Yankees replaced Holmes with Weaver, who held the role through the postseason. In place of Williams, Blake said he envisions Weaver getting the majority of the save opportunities for the foreseeable future.The Yankees gave Holmes a longer leash last year to continue in his role because “there was a longer track record of him doing it at a really high level” with New York, Blake said. He also felt it wasn’t until later in the season that clear alternatives emerged. This year, Blake said they believe Weaver, Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. could handle the ninth inning if called upon, which is partly why the Yankees decided a quick hook was the right call.“Rather than (Williams) be the sole burden of trying to finish games while he’s kind of scuffling, let’s just take that off his plate and get him right, and then let the other guys share the burden in the short term,” Blake said.There have been signs from the beginning of spring training that Williams hasn’t been comfortable being a Yankee and the attention that comes with playing for the franchise. Blake doesn’t believe it’s a reason why Williams has pitched to an 11.25 ERA, but he doesn’t think it’s unfair to mention the differences from what he was used to when he was pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers.“I think everyone gets there at their own pace,” Blake said. “I wouldn’t say he’s uncomfortable, but it is a change of pace living in Milwaukee to living in New York and dealing with the media here versus dealing with the media there and the expectations and the bright lights of being a closer in this environment. It’s just noisier. I don’t know if any of that has to do with why he’s struggled early in the season. Those are all real things to consider. He just had a baby. He’s got things going on at home that we’re dealing with. I think all of those things add up over there.”But as to exactly why Williams has struggled in New York, the Yankees’ pitching department is still trying to diagnose the main issues. Williams’ Stuff+, which measures the physical characteristics of pitches, on his changeup and fastball is relatively the same as it’s been over the past several seasons. His fastball is getting more vertical movement than it historically has, but his velocity is down a tick. The biggest difference is the lack of swing-and-miss on his changeup. Williams had a 48.8 percent whiff rate on his changeup last season; it’s down to 22 percent this year.“It’s a question we’re still kind of trying to bear down on,” Blake said of why Williams’ changeup hasn’t been successful with swing-and-miss. “When the metrics are similar and the miss isn’t showing up, is there some deception component to it? Is there some predictability to it? Is there a lack of getting to the right areas with it? All those things come up.”Blake said they don’t have a timeline for when Williams could possibly return as the Yankees’ closer. They want him to stack several good outings in a row before reconsidering slotting him back in that role.“It’s just making sure we take care of him and do right by the team and make sure we’re getting the best version of Devin whenever he ends up back in those spots,” Blake said.(Top photo: Elsa / Getty Images)
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