If someone asked a New York Yankees fan one year ago today who Clay Holmes is, no one could blame them for being unsure of the answer.

In just under 12 months, what once was a reliever who struggled to keep runs off the board for a bad Pittsburgh Pirates team is now possibly the best relief pitcher for the Yankees.

In Holmes' only full season with the Pirates in 2019, the Alabama native got blown up frequently by hitters. Holmes gave up a .299 Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP), a -0.1 Wins Above Average (WAR), and gave up 6.48 Walks per Nine Innings (BB/9).

To top that off, Holmes more or less did not pitch during the 60-game 2020 season. In 2020, at different points, a right foot fracture, a right forearm strain, and covid kept the righty reliever out of action.

Holmes got traded on July 26, 2021, for prospect infielders Hoy Jun Park and Diego Castillo. Most people thought the Yankees were just looking for filler in the back of their bullpen — Yankees Pitching Coach Matt Blake had other ideas.

In 25 appearances for the Yankees in 2021, Holmes lit up opposing lineups and solidified himself as one of Aaron Boone's most trusted relievers on the roster.

“It’s a little surreal,” Holmes told Brendan Kuty of NJ.Com. “It’s something that I can say I dreamed of and, I guess it’s cliche to say, but it’s a dream come true.”

Overall, Holmes finished the 2021 season surrendering just 3.73 BB/9, a .273 BABIP, and had a career-high 68.7% ground ball percentage.

For Holmes though, the success with the Yankees in 2021 was a building block for him to see what he could use to be even more successful in the future.

One of the important changes for Clay Holmes in 2022 is the usage of his sinker. So far this season, Holmes uses his sinker on a career-high 79% of his pitches. In 2021, the sinker saw action just 58.9% of the time for Holmes.

Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman became a big influence on his pitching repertoire, which saw Holmes throwing the slider a ton more as well.

“I’ve found some success with simplifying things and going heavy sinker and mixing in some sliders,” he said. “But at the same time, I want to have more success against lefties given the opportunities. Maybe adding a couple of pitches here and there that I’ve been tinkering with. I look forward to throwing them to some hitters and seeing how those are going to play out.”

In 2021, Holmes threw his slider a career-high 27.6% of the time. So far in 2022, the slider is now the #2 pitch for him after his sinker, throwing it 20.4% of the time.

One of the improvements that Blake and Holmes are making on Holmes' slider is increasing the movement of the pitch.

Blake took off two miles per hour of velocity on the slider and increased the movement of the pitch by six inches. Blake and Holmes accomplished this by changing the grip on the pitch to that of a two-seam fastball. By making this change, the swing-and-miss rate on the slider went up from 17% to now 43%. The slider's 55% ground ball rate in 2022 is 10% better than its 45% ground ball rate in 2021.

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The most interesting part of the improvement with the slider is that the pitch is hitting the strike zone just 33% of the time. To this point, Holmes' slider hit the strike zone nearly 50% of the time.

Now let's take a look at his sinker. Going back to Holmes' first season in the MLB in 2019, opposing hitters saw themselves hit the sinker to a .247 batting average. In 2022 so far, batters are hitting just .182 on that pitch.

One of the areas that Holmes still wants to improve in is facing left-handed batters.

In 2021, left-handed hitters hit a .356 batting average in 10 1/3 innings against Holmes. So far in 2022, lefties are hitting just .143 against the right-handed (albeit in just two innings).

Holmes is not just proving this season that he is here to stay, but that Holmes is one of the best relievers in all of baseball.