The New York Yankees suffered a rough loss to the Detroit Tigers in the Little League Classic by the score of 3-2 in 10 innings, and Clay Holmes' 10th blown save of the season was at the center of attention. As of right now, Yankees manager Aaron Boone is committed to Holmes as the closer.
“Yeah. Look, we'll see as we go,” Aaron Boone said, via Max Goodman of NJ.com. “We have a lot of really good options. Clay has had some tough breaks back there that's led to [10 blown saves] … The reality is he's throwing the ball really well. That said, we've got a lot of guys that are throwing the ball well in certain situations. Right now, Clay is the guy.”
The Yankees were up 1-0 heading into the bottom of the 9th inning when Holmes came into the game. Eventually, Holmes gave up a two-out, RBI single t0 Jace Jung, which tied the game at one. Holmes had a hot start to the season, but has blown 10 saves since, and has been heavily criticized by the Yankees fanbase.
New York usually boasts a strong bullpen, and the unit is not necessarily bad this year, but there are some question marks regarding the top guys to rely on in the playoffs.
Should the Yankees remove Clay Holmes as closer?
Boone and the Yankees seem to believe that there is a lot of bad luck involved with those blown saves for Holmes this season. There is a component of that when looking at his statistics this season. The BABIP against Holmes is at .341 this season, which is by far the highest he has had since joining the Yankees, up from .301 in 2023, .262 in 2022 and .254 after being traded to New York from the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021, according to Baseball Reference.
While Holmes can be prone to walk batters when he does struggle, the BABIP indicates that he is getting unlucky. As a ground ball pitcher, it is important that Holmes has a good defensive infield. Shortstop Anthony Volpe is very good defensively, but there are question marks at other positions, especially with Jazz Chisholm Jr. out due to injury. Gleyber Torres is not known for his defense, and DJ LeMahieu is not quite the defender that he used to be.
Other options in the bullpen for the Yankees could be arms like Mark Leiter Jr. or Jake Cousins, but it remains to be seen whether or not those pitchers can handle the closer role either.
Boone seemed more open to making a change at closer, saying that Holmes is the closer “right now.” The reality is that Holmes might still be the Yankees' best option in the 9th inning.
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