PITTSBURGH – Do you remember the top story of spring training for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2022? The one about how Devin Williams had added a new pitch, a cutter, to his arsenal?
And then do you remember how you haven’t heard next to a peep about it since?
That’s because Williams, mostly out of a lack of necessity with how good his other two pitches have been since then, practically had no use for the pitch.
But the Brewers all-star closer has started throwing it again in games.
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After throwing all of eight cutters last year, Williams has thrown 10 this year, including six over a six-game stretch that began in the aftermath of his blown save in Minnesota on June 13.
In that game, Williams found himself in a predicament. He didn’t quite have his best fastball or great command, so as the Twins sat on the changeup, he scuffled.
“It keeps me from feeling like I’m boxed in,” Williams said of adding the wrinkle in with the cutter. “They’re seeing three pitches instead of two. It makes it harder.”
Two days after the blow-up against the Twins – which is Williams’ lone blown save of the year in 17 tries – the right-hander threw two cutters against the Pittsburgh Pirates and got a called strike and flyout to left.
Arizona’s Jake McCarthy fouled one off and Geraldo Perdomo took one for a ball Williams’ next time out. Then Williams threw two more on Wednesday in New York, getting a swinging strike from Brett Baty and a pop out from Jeff McNeil to end the game.
“They’ve all been good,” Williams said.
There will be outings, and probably many of them, in which Williams doesn’t feel he needs the cutter.
He calculates what hitters are trying to do against him in real time as well as anyone, and catchers William Contreras and Victor Caratini are also versed in that area. When to use the cutter comes down to nothing more than a simple gut sense.
“The reason why Devin’s so good is that he just makes adjustments really fast,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “I think that’s what great players do. Their failures are much shorter than the normal guys.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers closer Devin Williams is using his cutter more than ever