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Yankees acquire All-Star closer Devin Williams from Brewers after Juan Soto's departure

The New York Yankees are going big game hunting after missing out on Juan Soto.

The Yankees acquired all-star closer Devin Williams from the Milwaukee Brewers, the teams announced Friday.

The Brewers are receiving starting pitcher Nestor Cortes and prospect Caleb Durbin in exchange for Williams. 

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Williams, 30, is a two-time All-Star and two-time Trevor Hoffman National League Reliever of the Year. 

Last season, in 22 games, Williams was 1-0 with a 1.25 ERA with 14 saves in 21⅔ innings after missing the first four months of the season with a stress fracture in his back.

Williams has a 1.83 ERA in 235⅔ career innings with 68 career saves. Williams is nicknamed "The Airbender" because of a wipeout changeup that strikes out over 14 hitters per nine innings. 

Williams will become the Yankees' new closer, and Luke Weaver will move back into a setup role. 

METS' JUAN SOTO REVEALS HE HASN'T TALKED TO ANY OF HIS FORMER YANKEES TEAMMATES SINCE WORLD SERIES LOSS

Cortes will immediately join the Brewers' starting rotation. Last season, Cortes was solid with a 3.77 ERA over 174.1 innings with a 9-10 record.

Cortes sustained a flexor strain at the end of the regular season and appeared out of the bullpen during the World Series in a limited role. 

The Yankees parted with Cortes due to a wealth of starting pitching the team had after signing Max Fried to the most lucrative contract given to a left-handed starting pitcher in MLB history

Durbin is a prospect who can play all over the diamond for the Brewers — second base, shortstop, third base and center field. 

The 24-year-old hit .269 with 110 stolen bases in four minor league seasons. Durbin struck out just 111 times in 1,216 minor league plate appearances.

The Yankees don’t appear to be done making moves yet and reportedly have interest in trading for outfielders Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger to replace Soto. 

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Ex-MLB All-Star Jonathan Lucroy unafraid to share conservative views despite hate mail

Former MLB catcher Jonathan Lucroy recently revealed he received hate mail after sharing his conservative views on social media. 

Making an appearance on "OutKick the Morning," Lucroy told Charly Arnolt there were also some supportive messages that flooded his inbox after he posted political and cultural opinions he had around Election Day.

He also revealed he refused to kneel for the national anthem despite an MLB team asking him to do so.

"My inbox was inundated with positive supportive messages from fans and people that aren’t even baseball fans, people that follow politics and have seen my posts and all that. [They’re] saying, ‘Hey man, we got your back. There’s more of us than them,’ which is true."

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As for his haters, Lucroy doubled down, saying words have little effect on him, especially when it comes to the values he stands for. 

"I mean, the minority is going to squeak the loudest, and they are going to scream. They are going to complain. They are going to throw temper tantrums. They’re going to argue. They are going to say ‘F you’ and all this other stuff," he said.

"Look, whenever I played, I had some death threats. I don’t know who it was, probably people that lost money on betting games or something that I played in. I’ve been booed in front of thousands of people on a baseball field. This stuff doesn’t bother me. Words have a very, very, very, very low effect on me. This is not something that I am going to be afraid of someone cussing at me or someone being mean to me. That’s what they do. They get offended by words. Us? We shouldn’t be offended by words. We should go and take action on things."

EX-MLB STAR JONATHAN LUCROY, WHO SPOKE ON REFUSING TO KNEEL FOR NATIONAL ANTHEM, SAYS HE'S GETTING HATE MAIL

In a previous appearance on "OutKick the Morning" Lucroy said he "gave them the finger" in reference to the MLB team he wouldn’t name that asked him to kneel for the national anthem during a time of social unrest in 2020. 

When he revealed "hate mail" he was receiving, Lucroy said, "God forbid a pro athlete stand up for what they believe."

"That’s part of the problem," he added. "Some people are too sensitive, emotional and weak to hear the opinion of people that reached the athletic pinnacle of the craft or any other top level. See [Elon Musk] and how much hate from the other side he’s getting."

Lucroy added his belief that most MLB players have conservative views, which the league wants them to keep to themselves.

"I am not politically correct," he said. "When I say that 90-plus percent of American-born MLB players are conservative, you can take that to the bank. We just don’t speak up as much because we are told to be neutral. I will not remain neutral anymore.

"I’m stubborn and hardheaded. I also know what it took for me to play 10 years in MLB, as well as witnessing the character attributes of greatness as defined by the best players I ever worked with. I don’t care what you think or say. I care about my children, family, God and country. Deal with it."

Lucroy also talked about the vaccine mandate in MLB, saying one team told him "if we didn’t get the vaccine, we couldn’t see our family for three months." Though, he did say it was a CDC mandate that was forced on MLB. 

Lucroy, an All-Star in 2014 and 2016, spent time with the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies during the 2020 season. 

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