The Yankees dropped tonight’s rubber match against the Rangers by a 10-6 margin. They’ve lost three straight series overall, dropping two of three against the Nationals, Cardinals and Texas. They had a good chance to secure a series victory and stay ahead of the Orioles in the AL East standings on Tuesday, but Clay Holmes surrendered a walk-off grand slam to Wyatt Langford in a 7-4 defeat.
It was the 11th save attempt which Holmes has squandered this year, three more than any other pitcher. The Yankees stopped short of officially stripping the right-hander of the closer role, yet it seems they’ll move to more of a committee approach in the short term. Before tonight’s game, skipper Aaron Boone told reporters that he’d be “creative” with the ninth inning (X link via Jack Curry of the YES Network). Boone indicated that Holmes remains in the mix for save chances, though it doesn’t appear that he’ll get every one by default.
To Holmes’ credit, he hasn’t pitched poorly overall in spite of the ugly blown save mark. He carries a solid 3.27 ERA over 55 innings. His 25.2% strikeout percentage and 8% walk rate are fine. Opponents have put nearly two-thirds of their batted balls on the ground. Among relievers with 50+ innings, only teammate Tim Hill has gotten grounders at a higher rate. ERA estimators like FIP (2.91) and SIERA (2.82) still suggest Holmes has been an excellent pitcher.
Despite the impressive rate stats, Holmes has found himself walking a tightrope at times throughout the year. He was utterly dominant early in the season. He didn’t allow an earned run until May 20, a stretch of 20 games and as many innings. Holmes carries a 5.14 earned run average through 35 frames since that point. The plus command he showed early on has become far shakier in recent weeks. Holmes is headed to free agency for the first time in his career at year’s end.
His ups and downs are magnified by a bullpen that has been underwhelming lately. Yankee relievers rank 22nd in ERA since the All-Star Break. That’s partially on Holmes, but their deadline pickups of Mark Leiter Jr. and Enyel De Los Santos haven’t panned out. De Los Santos was blasted over five appearances and quickly waived. Leiter has been very homer-prone since landing in the Bronx. Home runs have also been a problem for Luke Weaver and Jake Cousins.
Aside from Holmes, the Yankees have given their highest-leverage work to Tommy Kahnle and Leiter in the second half. Kahnle has pitched well and could pick up some save chances. Boone also left the door open to a potential closing look for either of Luis Gil or Clarke Schmidt (X link via Curry).
Both pitchers are returning from the injured list this weekend. They’ll each occupy a rotation spot for the upcoming set against the Cubs. The Yankees will carry a six-man rotation into next week before deciding whether to bump someone to relief. Nestor Cortes seems the likeliest candidate for a bullpen move, though he doesn’t have the velocity typically associated with a closer. Gil and Schmidt have more prototypical closing stuff.
Not even 1 single Yankee from the last dynasty years version of the team is still playing for the Yankees- not even 1! Not even from the very last of the World Series championship winning year of it. Almost unbelievable.
Not sure what you’re watching but I saw nick swisher playing LF tonight.
chapo – Me too, and Swish is keeping his wife away from Varitek.
Technically the “dynasty” years ended in 2001 and there isn’t one single player in MLB currently playing that was active then (even Rich Hill wasn’t a minor leaguer yet)…
He’s just a troll he does this type of thing on many stories.
I know. The name changes but the idiocy remains the same…
The return of Marlins Fan
Almost unbelievable. In other words: believable.
Babe Ruth was used as a pinch runner in April. I guess you missed it.
Not gonna go far in the playoffs without a closer. If MLB didn’t make sure that Aaron Judge only sees the balls that fly out of the ballpark easily ….. Are the Yankees even a playoff team??? It is a crime that their is not an uproar over MLB buying Rawlings, the maker of the baseball, and then completely using that to greatly influence outcomes and offense. Sad!
Eh, bad troll job. Be better.
I speak nothing but the truth! Those baseballs that are composed differently ….. This is why pretty much ALL of the pitchers keep wrecking their arms.
Controlling the baseballs and changing their composition, all to control the likelihood of home runs. Create the “vitamin” era without the “vitamins”. Create “fake” superstars doing unreal things. Inflated offensive stats all for the sake of making more $$$$.
Greed $$$$ has ruined the game! What next??? Aluminum bats???
It’s all analytics. Chasing velocity with max rpm for pitchers causes injuries. It seems that this is the main reason for the increase in injuries.
As to HR inflation, also analytics chasing bat speed, swing path and launch angle equals more home runs. When you have an elite athlete combined with all this knowledge and an extra staff to help implement, coupled with a good work ethic you judge, ohtani, Henderson etc.
And in regards to your statement about the ball quality, in the juiced ball years we were seeing guys like gleybor Torres his 30+ hr and Todd Frazier his Brocken bat HR while being on one knee. And most importantly the PITCHERS were the ones complaining about the new ball (tight seems less grip etc) NONE of which I hear these days. You’re just throwing out tinfoil hat garbage.
Receipts or it didn’t happen.
Luis Gil could be a good closer especially if he builds up for relief he’d be throwing 100 every day
The problem is that Gil needs to be the third starter after Cole and Rodon in the playoffs. He needs to stay stretched out and can’t do that being a one-inning guy pitching twice in three days.
They need to limit his innings now anyway. Don’t think they’ll let him go deep through the playoffs if he starts every few days.
Let’s see how viable he is as a reliever before the playoffs start.
That won’t be hard as the Yankees are going nowhere but home….Hal is already there in Tampa counting his beans.
Gil doesn’t have enough gas left in the tank to be in the postseason rotation. The third starter is going to be Schmidt
But didn’t NYYs GM say the team didn’t need to trade for a closer at the trade deadline …. #FireCashman
Tbf they didn’t because he was pitching well at the time.
They did not do it because Hal only puts so much money into the team. He is looking to buy a new yacht.
The Yankees has the second highest payroll in baseball.
Finally Boone decides to get “creative” and go closer-by-committee. I’m not confident with anyone in the bullpen who can succeed in the role but Holmes has been terrible with his command over the past three months. He needs work things out in lower-leverage situations. My hunch is Tommy Kahnle will pitch more in the ninth.
Boone is basically a therapist, who moonlights as a runner for cashman. All of these decisions are from corporate.
Boone isn’t being “creative”, Cashman is telling him what to do after losing three straight series to teams with losing records. Cashman built the bullpen and went cheap at the deadline when guys like Puk, Scott and Kopech were available
Kahnle seems too temperamental/emotional for the closers job. I have seen him yell and punch the air after Boonie came to get him a few times. Maybe Polyester Nestor? Lol.
Kahnle’s best pitch or only pitch is the changeup….if he throws across the plate the ball has a tendency to go 450 feet the other way causing Kahnle and other Yankees to suffer serious neck injuries.
Not sure why anyone would be surprised at this result. You can not have a high leverage reliever who is not a primarily swing and miss pitcher. If your top reliever has a below average whiff rate on his fastball( sinker in Holmes’ case) then your in trouble. Babip eventually will regress to the mean an when your a sinker ball pitcher sometimes the hits get through the infield sometimes not. Almost all the highest ranking relievers have plus plus fastballs with great movement be it horizontally or vertically and a very good secondary, primarily off speed pitch . Holmes has none of these his sinker while good does not induce swing and miss and his slider/sweeper are average while his change up when located can be a weapon, however he has had serious command issues with rptnat particular pitch.
Overall the blame is on cashman for overplaying his hand and believing that because of his previous success of turning RP with good velocity and pitch shape but suffered from bad mechanics into at times dominating pitchers in a one year go-for -broke season and not upgrading the pen at the deadline is malpractice on his part.
Agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts
Cashman is nothing more than a yes man….the blame lies squarely on Cheapskate Hal! He runs the team like PT Barnum just to draw the fans.
Cashman is not the Yes Man. If anything Hal is the Yes Man because he doesn’t understand baseball nor have much interest in it and relies on Cashman for like running the whole shebang. Hal just signs the checks and nods his head to whatever Cashman is blathering about.
You are so right!
$300 million payroll? They just have too much dead wood on the team. Stanton, DJ, etc. need to go. Dodgers cut and run and seem far more aggressive and nimble. They’ve dealt with more injuries as well.
Agree. Cashman and Hal signaled they were not all in this year after needing pitching, and coming out with one while getting rid of another. Jazz was a good add, but time and time again, pitching wins works series-not offense.
Cashman has been amazing at building teams, and developing and maintaining a culture of winning – but, those two things are hard to defend with no World Series appearances or wins.
I’m not sure they thought they had a real chance against the orioles. It’s taken a legitimately historic bout of injury to the Orioles for the Yankees just to stay even with them. The talent gap between the two teams was so monstrous that they probably just thought it wasn’t worth going for this season. You can’t expect a team to lose Westburg, Grayson, Colombe and Webb to long term injuries on top of Bradish, Bautista, means, and wells all being out for the season. The Yankees data probably said they were several games worse than the Orioles so going all in would be a mistake. It’s really difficult to punish a GM for alleged bad decision making for not factoring in a historic bout of bad luck.
Grayson and Bradish are the only ones who really hurt them. The relievers you mentioned are all fungible/replaceable with guys who put up similar numbers. Westburg is a rookie. Rookies and relievers and 4th and 5th starters don’t make or break your team.
Dodgers may well ending up finally winning it all again because of their trade for their new closer …. Michael Kopech. Kopech will still be under control of the Dodgers for next year as well.
They are going to win it because they focused on winning baseball games!
Whoever is healthy from
Off day pickup basket ball games will close.
Tanner Scott would’ve been the guy instead of Leiter and De Los Santos. The Padres did pay a pretty hefty load of prospects for him though.
@el_chapo_
Agreed, but in this sort of season I’d think it’s go big or go home. Apparently not…
Think of the Yankees like an index fund. As long as the investors are making their dependable and steady return, everyone is happy. If Hal actually had an interest and passion for baseball it could make a difference, but his job is to please the stakeholders.
As in stakeholders, the Steinbrenner sibblings and relatives who leached off the Boss all those years.
2.56 FIP before last night and several BS’s have been without an earned run. I’m not sure he’s pitching that bad
Have you actually watched him pitch? I can’t remember his last 1-2-3 inning. He walks way to many batters, falls behind way to many hitters and gives up way to much hard contact. The only way he gets a save is if a fielder makes a great play or the ball is hit at someone. Over the past 3 month he has converted only 60% of his save chances and none were easy!
Gil.
A hat, a broach, a pterodactyl.
Gil to closer role, Schmidt back in rotation. Bye bye Mariannacio (for now) and Mayza (who is shot).
Heads or tails.
Yankees crack front office trades prospects at deadline for handful of beans, is shocked to find nothing grows. UGH
They bringing back Mariano?
“We can rebuild him. We have the technology.”
AI Mariano with 6 fingers.
Make Cole your closer. He’s only pitching about 5 innings per game on average so won’t make much of a difference. Throw him in there for 2 or 3 innings. Problem solved.
Cole is one “cover first” away from being done for the season.
@whyhayzee
My IQ is only 2, so I don’t understand what that means.
His calf tightness will cause a blow out.
This isn’t being creative, throwing the bullpen catcher in as closer… Creative
creative??? more like self-destructive
“Aaron Boone gets creative, activates himself on to big league roster”…
matt blake is a very good pitching coach but the yankees fooled themselves into thinking they could grab anyone off the junk heap and he would transform them into mariano. in addition, their lack of urgency at the deadline indicates they don’t see this year as full GFIN even after trading for soto as a likely rental. if nothing else, it will be interesting to see how the analytics department gives boone his marching orders in real time instead of before the game
If Boone knew how to be creative, Holmes wouldn’t have a ridiculous 11 blown saves.
Stuff is important in the closers role but not nearly as much as brass balls….which obviously Holmes doesn’t have. Only in the dugout do they know who has the rocks to audition for this role…..but Nestor seems to be a guy who can handle it mentally. Stuff wise, Burdi is still in AAA throwing near 100. Trivino was also an average closer for the A’s. Both not mentioned.
Good ole boondoggle.
Boone’s idea of being creative is letting everyone in the bullpen blow a save.
But did he call him Holmsy?
This is the first year Sure Lock has been asked to save such a high percentage of the time. More save situations, more stress, and he’s been in a lot of games, even for him. Boonedoggle burns out his effective bullpen arms with overuse. He’s not the only manager that does that, Torre reached that level as well and couldn’t finish the Diamondbacks nor the Red Sox with Mister Unanimous. Honestly, the Yankees are so obsessed with trying to win every game that they fail in the postseason every year, for all practical purposes. 2009, they had vitamins, big whoop.
This team will never win a WS with Boone and Cashman here. Boone excuses waaaaaaay too much and makes some poor in-game decisions, while Cashman isn’t capable of putting together the necessary players or information to overcome Boone’s faults.
It doesn’t help that it takes them multiple seasons to figure out what fans typically identify as a problem in just a few months.