He did it to Nestor Cortes, he did it to Jose Trevino…and Aaron Boone completed the trifecta with reliever Clay Holmes, hiding a camera in his office to tell Holmes he was a first-time All-Star just before the teams were announced on Sunday:
“Well, the most dominant reliever in the sport gets to go to L.A. for the All-Star Game,” Boone said as soon as Holmes sat down. “I know this probably isn’t much of a surprise, but the fact I know you’re going for the first time, it’s still got to be pretty awesome. You earned it, and we’re all reaping the reward.”
Holmes said he was glad it came as a Yankee, and the Yankees are sure glad it is, too. The team acquired the righty mid-season in 2021, hoping to unearth a gem in a player that had a 5.57 ERA in 117 2/3 innings over four seasons in Pittsburgh.
That’s exactly what happened, as Holmes, through Sunday, has a 0.94 ERA in 67 1/3 innings as a Yankee – including a franchise-record scoreless innings streak for a reliever – and has taken over as the closer in Aroldis Chapman’s absence (and even since his return), locking down 16 saves this season.
All because both he and the Yankees believed in his bread-and-butter pitch, the turbo sinker, thinking Holmes could be Mariano-esque in the way Rivera used his cutter.
“We love anybody who has exceptional characteristics on a specific pitch,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman told the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner last week. “That’s one way the industry has changed, is the recognition that, instead of trying to get all these different parts of your repertoire working and judging people that way — singularly, do they do anything exceptionally well with one pitch? And if they do, gravitate to that.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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