In an ideal world, Clay Holmes would return to a Yankees team that just won a championship.
“We won the World Series and we’re going to do it again next year with the same team,” Holmes said recently. “As players, that’s what we’re focused on.”
Holmes tries not to focus on her long-term future and where that might take her.
The Yankees closer is eligible to become a free agent after this season and said at the All-Star break that talks about a new contract wouldn’t begin until after the season is over.
The hundreds of millions of dollars awaiting Juan Soto, the Yankees’ top priority, will complicate any free-agent deal.
If Soto stays, the team will have little money to spend elsewhere: Hal Steinbrenner has said the Yankees’ 2024 payroll is more than $300 million and “simply unsustainable.”
Holmes, a soft-spoken man who looks great in a pinstriped uniform, said he would like to return but understands a decision will be made in the coming months.
“I think things will work out when they need to,” Holmes said, adding that the Yankees don’t need to figure anything out until around November.
The right-hander went from prodigy closer to undisputed closer to somewhat controversial closer in his three-and-a-half seasons with the Yankees, who dealt him in a forgettable July 2021 trade with the Pirates for minor league infielders Diego Castillo and Hoy Park.
Neither player has had much success, but Holmes made his second All-Star team this year.
The Yankees quickly released Holmes, who pitched to a 2.55 ERA in 201 1/3 innings with the club, relying on his sinker.
Holmes has only needed to go on the disabled list twice, in August 2021 and August 2022, and returned within a month both times.
“It was a special time,” Holmes said of her time in New York. “Obviously, everybody’s on a different path in that sense, but to be able to come here and actually start to put something together and know that I can go out there and help my team win, it’s rewarding.”
He may not be dominant, but he is reliable and good.
What Holmes’ game lacks is a superior ability to make the bat swing and miss.
He has 49 strikeouts in 46²/₃ innings this season, which is solid but not as good as a late-inning pitcher who sometimes needs outs even when the ball isn’t being hit.
Extra-inning ghost runners are especially valuable for relief pitchers who can strike out three batters rather than allowing runs on a couple of batted ball errors.
Most of Holmes’ problems this season — he has a 2.70 ERA but has saved 24 of 33 times — have come when opposing batters find an opening on a ground ball.
Nobody in baseball has a higher ground ball rate than Holmes (67.6%), and opposing batters are averaging exit ball velocity of 87.7 mph, better than most.
However, his 24.5 percent strikeout rate, while not bad, wasn’t the best, which prompted the Yankees to add Mark Leiter Jr. (33.7 percent strikeout rate) to a bullpen that needed more strikeout ability.
Holmes is doing better than the Yankees expected.
Will they decide they need to free up money from their budget to keep the 31-year-old?
There has been a lot of turnover in the bullpen, with Jonathan Loaisiga and Tommy Kahnle also potentially on the way.
Leiter cannot become a free agent until after the 2026 season.
Among the players under team control until at least next season are Ian Hamilton, Michael Tonkin, Jake Cousins, Eniel de los Santos and Scott Efros.
The Yankees hold 2025 options on Luke Weaver and Lou Trivino.
Other closer candidates expected to hit the market include Kenley Jansen, Craig Kimbrel, Tanner Scott, Carlos Estevez and Yimi Garcia.
