*Photo from Bleacher Report*
I'm sure you all heard the story when it happened, in late September, when Milwaukee Brewers reliever Devin Williams broke his hand when he punched a wall. After initially regretting it at the time, Williams spoke about it again on Wednesday in an interview with Will Sammon of The Athletic.
In his interview with Sammon, Williams said the incident happened because of an altercation he had. He did not share any details, saying that "I don't really have an answer. I can tell you for sure, though, that it wasn't that I was fighting with my significant other or things that I've seen people say. That's not the case. It was just a drunken moment. It was something stupid. I hit a wall, and I woke up, and my hand was in pain."
The infamous wall punching incident happened as the Brewers were celebrating their NL Central title in late September, officially punching their ticket to the playoffs. When it was revealed that Williams would be unable to play in the postseason, Williams did apologize to his teammates. Some of them were supportive of Williams, and others apparently aired frustrations, but it is not known who.
In those 2021 playoffs, the Brewers were taken care of by the eventual world champion Atlanta Braves, losing the NLDS to the Braves in 4 games, in large part because of the hitting that went cold, and Freddie Freeman homering off Josh Hader in the 8th inning of game 4, a situation Williams would have been pitching in if he was healthy.
Brewers reliever Hunter Strickland, who missed time in 2018 after punching a wall, reached out to Williams about putting it behind him, saying in a text that "You have to forgive yourself at some point and move on. Otherwise, you're just holding yourself back, keeping yourself from moving forward."
After an offseason of recovery, Williams will be ready for spring training and the start of the 2022 season, whenever that happens. He has already began throwing, and will likely resume his role as Josh Hader's primary setup man in 2022, with Williams recording 3 saves of his own last season.
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