For Clay Holmes, the 2024 season was a roller coaster ride. From making his second All-Star appearance as the Yankees’ lockdown closer to receiving jeers and boos every time he ran from the bullpen to the mound, he has seen and heard it all.
However, in a new role, Holmes is thriving and has been a major reason for the Yankees’ success in the postseason thus far.
In the first two months of the regular season, Holmes was virtually unhittable. With an ERA of 1.48, he recorded 16 saves in 25 appearances. At Yankee Stadium, when he entered, the lights went down, his entrance song “White Horse” played, and it seemed as if Holmes was on top of the world.
However, the successes for Holmes began to turn into struggles. After only blowing three
saves through the first two months of the season, the blown saves began to pile up, all the way to a league-leading 13 by the season’s end, and the dog days of summer are a big reason why.
From June 1 to Sept 3, Holmes’ ERA sat at 4.70, and he recorded 13 saves to eight blown ones.
With the playoffs right around the corner and Holmes’ continued struggles, Yankees manager
Aaron Boone made the difficult decision to move him out of the closer role in favor of Luke Weaver.
In 2022, the last time the Yankees were in the postseason, something similar happened. Entering that season, Aroldis Chapman, the team’s established closer, began to struggle as the
season went on. Chapman was eventually replaced by Holmes prior to the postseason. Instead of taking the demotion, Chapman failed to attend a practice prior to the playoffs and was left off the playoff roster. However, this was far from the case for Holmes.
Instead of hanging his head, Holmes was moved to a prominent position in the Yankees bullpen, often being called upon to record big outs in big spots. And in the postseason thus far, Holmes has done exactly that.
Thus far this postseason, he has appeared in all of the first six Yankees postseason games prior to Game 3 of the ALCS on Thursday night in Cleveland. In those 6.2 innings, he struck out five, walked two, allowed three hits, and has an ERA of zero. Although he struggled, Boone never lost confidence in his former closer and always believed he could make a big impact on the biggest stage.
“I always felt like even though I changed the role a little bit, I knew he had everything to handle it, especially being a really good pitcher,” Boone said. “It’s been good to see him really
finish the season as strong as he did and obviously pitching as well as he is for us right now.”
Holmes is still yet to allow a run in his postseason career in 14.2 innings of work. If he is able to continue his postseason dominance, he will continue to be a focal point of what has been a lights-out Yankees bullpen to this point.
