Latest news with #TheAirbender
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Yankees' Airbender Devin Williams has a new fan in ‘Avatar' co-creator
When the Yankees acquired Devin Williams from the Brewers in December, he began what has been a rocky relationship with a new fanbase. The two-time National League Reliever of the Year didn't make a strong first impression, recording an 11.25 ERA over his first 10 games. The performance led to unprecedented boos for Williams, questions over his comfort in New York, and his removal as the Yankees' closer. Advertisement But with Luke Weaver hurt, Williams is back in the role. The return comes with Williams better resembling his best self lately, as he's held opponents scoreless in 16 of his last 19 outings. On Thursday, he picked up his second save in as many days, recording a 1-2-3 ninth in a 1-0 win over the Royals, giving the Bronx faithful more reason to get behind him. One of Williams' new fans isn't all that interested in his highs and lows, though. Instead, Michael DiMartino has taken note of Williams because of his signature pitch, 'The Airbender.' 'He's definitely on my radar now,' DiMartino told the Daily News. 'I'll have to check out a game.' DiMartino, not much of a baseball fan, had no idea Williams existed until recently. However, he and Bryan Konietzko co-created 'Avatar: The Last Airbender,' the show that inspired the nickname bestowed upon Williams' go-to changeup. Advertisement The animated series, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in February, aired on Nickelodeon from 2005-2008. Popular among kids and critics – the cartoon won a Primetime Emmy and a Peabody Award — 'Avatar' tackled complex themes such as war, genocide, colonialism, discrimination, sexism, classism, animal cruelty, corruption, death and the afterlife despite being geared toward younger viewers. 'I've seen a little bit,' the 30-year-old Williams told The News, noting that he's watched Season 1 multiple times. 'I haven't seen all of it. I used to watch it as a kid, though.' 'Avatar' is set in an anime-influenced universe that's full of martial artists who can telekinetically manipulate, or 'bend,' one of four elements: water, earth, fire or air. Nations are divided based on which element its people can bend, and the Fire Nation is on an imperialistic warpath throughout the show. Only the Avatar, a 12-year-old boy named Aang, can bend all four elements. He's responsible for maintaining harmony between nations. Advertisement There's way more lore to it all, but the thing to know is that Airbenders can make things move like crazy, just like Williams. 'I had never thought about it before,' DiMartino said, 'but someone who can actually air-bend would make a great pitcher.' According to Baseball Savant, Williams' Airbender entered the 2025 season as the most valuable pitch thrown by a reliever since 2020. While the Mets' Pete Alonso got a hold of one last October and the pitch lacked effectiveness when Williams struggled earlier this season, it's back to being a deadly weapon, yielding a 39.6% whiff rate in May and a 40% rate so far in June. Williams doesn't use telekinesis to make his Airbender dart, though, even if it may seem that way at times. Advertisement 'It kind of defies physics,' said Yankees Triple-A catcher Alex Jackson, who caught Williams in Milwaukee and this spring. Added Ben Rice: 'It looks like a cue ball coming in.' Williams' wrist pronation and flexion are responsible for his Airbender's movement. So is former Brewers and current Yankees teammate Trent Grisham, who recommended that Williams alter the grip of his changeup when the two were with Milwaukee in 2019. 'He does a really good job of getting his hand to the top, inside corner of the ball,' said Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake. 'Most guys side-spin the ball or cut it, and he does a good job of top-spinning the inside of the ball at a really high rate. So it ends up being essentially a left-handed slider with how hard he spins it from that position. Most guys can't do that.' Advertisement Others referred to The Airbender as a screwball when Williams first started chucking it. The debate left Rob Friedman, a.k.a. the Pitching Ninja, searching for an alternative. Then he remembered the show about a kid who can bend air. 'I was definitely familiar with the name of the cartoon, but never watched it,' Friedman said. 'I just liked the name and thought it was a great way to categorize something that's so nasty while stopping the argument of whether it was a changeup or screwball.' Weaver, who throws his own filthy changeup, said Williams' is 'in a different category' and a 'unicorn-type pitch.' Advertisement Austin Wells agreed, claiming Williams has an 'anomaly' in his arsenal. 'It's just different than what guys are used to seeing,' Williams said. While the Yankees have become familiar with Williams' Airbender, the group didn't know much about DiMartino's. Like Friedman, few had seen the series. Some didn't even know about it. Jazz Chisholm Jr. proved to be an exception. 'I watched it growing up,' said the Yankees' resident cartoon expert, who wears anime-inspired gear. 'My mom bought me the discs that had all the seasons and all the episodes on it. 'I watched it a lot.' Williams, meanwhile, has leaned into being baseball's first Airbender. Advertisement The image used for this story is the same one that Williams uses for his profile pic on Instagram. It was created by Francis Lee, a big fan of the Yankees and 'Avatar: The Last Airbender.' The glowing eyes and arrow in the center of Williams' forehead are a nod to Aang's character design. The same arrow appears on Yankee Stadium's jumbotron when he enters a game. 'It's cute!' said DiMartino, who majored in animation at the Rhode Island School of Design. 'He makes a good-looking Avatar.' Could Williams make a good-sounding 'Avatar' character, though? Maybe he'll get the opportunity to find out. Advertisement In 2021, Nickelodeon founded Avatar Studios with the intention of an expanded universe through new shows and movies. One film, 'The Legend of Aang,' has already been announced. If Williams were to ever lend his voice to the Avatar universe, he wouldn't be the first athlete to do so. Tennis icon Serena Williams is 'obsessed' with the show and made cameos in 'The Last Airbender' and a spinoff, 'The Legend of Korra.' 'You never know,' DiMartino said of the Yankees' Williams playing a part. Williams has never done any voice acting, but he's open to the idea. 'Sure,' he said. 'Tell him to contact my agent.' Advertisement Chisholm, meanwhile, sounded ready to represent Williams should Nickelodeon come calling. 'He should be doing that!' the third baseman said. 'That's why you have that great nickname, bro. Use it to your advantage. It's sick!' Williams said he'd like to finish the original 'Avatar' series, as he's a fan of anime. For now, however, he will focus on closing. DiMartino plans on checking in, though the Vermont native's newfound support comes with a plot twist. 'Growing up in New England, Boston teams were my dad's favorites, so the Red Sox hold a special place in my heart,' said DiMartino, who watched Bill Buckner's infamous error in the 1986 World Series in horror before shifting his interests away from baseball. 'I'll still be rooting for the Red Sox if the Yankees play them. Sorry, Devin!' Advertisement With the Bombers starting a new series against the Red Sox on Friday, Williams, who already has one save against Boston this season, would rather make Yankees fans happy than DiMartino. 'Hopefully,' he said, 'I don't give him anything to cheer about.'
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Yankees Devin Williams' Strong Message After 'Subtle' Struggles This Season
Devin Williams had been one of the most dominant relief pitchers in baseball since the Milwaukee Brewers named him their closer in 2022. Williams finished 89 regular-season games between 2022 and 2024; in that span, he recorded 65 saves and a 1.66 ERA while striking out 221 batters over 141 innings. But since a winter trade to the New York Yankees, Williams has struggled to replicate his lockdown form on the Junior Circuit. After allowing three runs in only two-thirds of an inning in a loss to the San Diego Padres on Monday, Williams sports a 10.03 ERA in 14 appearances this season, and Yankees manager Aaron Boone has already removed him from the closer's role. After Williams surrendered three of the Padres' four eighth-inning runs at Yankee Stadium, the right-hander projected confidence to ESPN as he tries to get his season back on track. Advertisement "I feel good, I feel confident on the mound," Williams said. "I felt like I was in a good spot. It's one of those nights where you're not only battling the hitter, I was battling the mound. But we're all given the same set of circumstances and I couldn't pull through tonight." Williams entered Monday's game with the Yankees leading 3-0. After recording a strikeout to begin the eighth, Williams allowed two walks and a single before exiting the frame. Luke Weaver then surrendered two two-out hits as the Padres completed the comeback. Williams shot to prominence on the strength of his changeup, known as "The Airbender." Yankees manager Aaron Boone isn't worried about Williams' best offering disappearing -- but as New York's record has fallen to 19-16, the former NL Rookie of the Year will have to rediscover what made him great in Milwaukee. Advertisement "The biggest thing, again, is just command and being ahead and not putting guys on," Boone said about Williams' outing. "(The) stuff is there. Stuff's fine and I do believe he'll get on a roll and be lights out and dominant. But the command part of it, where the walks or getting behind in certain situations, have hurt him a little bit." Related: Epic-Glasses-Tossing Spectacle Leads to Yankees' Devin Williams' Latest Meltdown
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
After rough first month with the Yankees, reliever Devin Williams takes a step forward
BALTIMORE — Redemption won't come all at once for Devin Williams. But on Monday in Baltimore, the beleaguered Yankees reliever took a modest step in the right direction. A clean eighth inning, in a 4-3 Yankees loss, offered Williams a moment of normalcy in a season that has been anything but simple. Upon conjuring a harmless pop-up to finish his scoreless frame, Williams strolled back to the bench alongside his teammates, not apart from them. A wave of high-fives and 'atta boys' greeted him in the dugout. It was the type of dominant, ho-hum scene Yankees brass must've envisioned when they traded for Williams in December. Armed with a slow heartbeat and an untouchable, unicorn changeup dubbed 'The Airbender,' Williams developed into a model of late-inning brilliance in Milwaukee. And so the 30-year-old, who is set to hit free agency this upcoming winter, arrived in the Bronx with a laundry list of accolades — two All-Star selections, two Reliever of the Year Awards, a World Baseball Classic nod — and the expectations to match. Advertisement But Williams' first month as Yankees closer was a tough scene: 10 earned runs in his first eight innings, an ERA north of 11 and a precipitous drop in strikeout rate. Predictably, those struggles incited wrath and ire from a demanding Yankees fan base, one spoiled by two decades of Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer in baseball history. A blown save against Toronto on April 25, in which Williams surrendered three runs and did not record an out, proved to be the final straw. Two days later, Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced that he would be removing Williams from the ninth-inning role in favor of righty Luke Weaver and his sparkling 0.00 ERA. Williams, calm, his voice even, responded to the crushing news on Sunday with a poignant self-awareness. Advertisement 'With the way things have gone recently, it's not really a shock to me, you know?' he told reporters. 'Being the closer is a position you have to earn, you know? And you have to keep earning it to continue to be in that role. Lately, I haven't been doing it. You work for years to get to that point — to have that taken away from you, it's not a fun feeling at all. But I can't say it's undeserved.' That the metrics on Williams' fastball-changeup combo are generally in line with his peak years is both encouraging and frustrating. The airbender still dances, even if the whiff rate on the pitch is down 15%. The movement profile, the raw stuff — that's all there. The problem appears to be location. Too often this season, Williams has left his signature pitch over the horizontal middle of the plate, where hitters can do damage. He's also falling behind in counts and issuing too many walks. While free passes have always been an area of concern for Williams, in the past he missed enough bats to bail himself out. In Milwaukee, he consistently located the change on the low corners and below, leading to a ton of chase. In New York, he has been leaving pitches in hittable zones — and paying for it. Advertisement Boone echoed the faith in Williams' abilities, telling reporters including Bill Ladson that he believes Williams has 'all the equipment to do this at an elite level.' Finding a way to revitalize Williams, so that he can re-earn the closer role in time, is quite obviously in the Yankees' best interest. Because for the first five seasons of his career, Williams was dynamite, borderline automatic. From 2020 through 2024, no MLB pitcher had a lower batting average against (.144). The only qualified reliever with a lower ERA was Cleveland's Emmanuel Clase (1.62 to 1.70), and only Mets flame-thrower Edwin Díaz had a higher strikeout rate (41.7% to 40.8%). But as Williams inched closer to free agency, a trade away from the only organization he'd ever known felt inevitable. The low-budget Brewers rarely let valuable players walk away on the open market for nothing. Instead, predictably, Milwaukee shipped their all-world closer to the Bronx for established lefty starter Nestor Cortes and a promising young infielder named Caleb Durbin. The final pitch Williams threw as a Brewer was easily his most painful: an elevated changeup that resulted in the game-ending, series-clinching, three-run blast from Mets slugger Pete Alonso. To be fair, conversations about whether Williams is ultimately 'built' for the Bronx feel premature, even with his rocky start and subsequent demotion. The past six months of Williams' life have been marked by upheaval and transition. Transition from Milwaukee to New York, from an easy drive to a long subway ride, from a docile fan base to an impatient one, from two beat writers to 15, from a half-decade of familiarity to a whole new world. Add to that the birth of his and his fiancee's first child, and it's easy to paint a sympathetic picture of a human being grappling with change. Advertisement Williams is introspective, honest, contemplative, emotionally intelligent, a chiller's chiller. Unlike many ballplayers, he pauses to think, sometimes for a while, before he responds to a question. He also exudes a certain calm that stands out in a sporting world full of unyielding chaos and loud voices and roaring bravado. Baseball has changed his life, but it's clear that Williams doesn't let the sport entirely define who he is. It's a mentality that, during his outstanding career, has served him quite well and should continue to do so as he regains his footing. And he is far from the first high-profile reliever to scuffle with a new team. His former Brewers teammate Josh Hader, for instance, also an elite reliever, was abysmal right after being dealt to San Diego at the 2022 deadline. Through his first 10 outings as a Padre, Hader had an ERA north of 13 and was removed from the closer role in late August. But by October, he'd regained his form to help lead San Diego to the NLCS. He signed a massive contract with the Astros one year later and remains one of the game's best bullpen arms. Something similar feels possible, even probable, for Williams. His straightforward, uneventful outing Monday was a small reminder that a path to redemption — and back to the closer role — exists. Yes, his April struggles were ugly enough for the Yankees to temporarily change his job description. But it's far too early to label him as anything other than a talented arm with elite stuff who should eventually find his way back. It won't be all at once. But Williams, the Yankee, is still very much capable of greatness.
