ARLINGTON, Texas — The day after the trade deadline, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters he was comfortable with Clay Holmes as his closer and did not enter the marketplace looking to replace him. It could be a decision that lingers well after the season is over.
The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Michael Kopech from the Chicago White Sox. Kopech has thrown 15 1/3 innings, allowed just one run and struck out 20 batters since the trade. The Philadelphia Phillies acquired Los Angeles Angels closer Carlos Estévez, who has a 1.84 ERA since becoming a Phillie. The Yankees traded for Mark Leiter Jr., who has a 6.08 ERA in pinstripes, and Enyel De Los Santos, who was designated for assignment and now pitches for the Chicago White Sox, a team trending toward being the worst in MLB history.
Neither move has worked out well for the Yankees. They hoped Leiter would be a go-to option in the late innings, but he’s been rocked as a Yankee and has not been used in high-leverage situations in multiple days. The lack of elite options out of the bullpen is costing the Yankees wins. And Tuesday’s performance against the Texas Rangers was the worst display yet that the Yankees needed better relievers at the deadline.
Holmes blew his 11th save of the season, leading to a 7-4 Rangers win. He allowed two walks and two hits, including a walk-off grand slam to outfielder Wyatt Langford. It’s the first walk-off grand slam the Yankees have surrendered since 2008 when Marlon Byrd took Damaso Marte deep to end a game. The loss Tuesday is the Yankees’ eighth loss when leading in the ninth inning or later; only the Colorado Rockies, with nine, have more.
WYATT WALK-OFF GRAND SLAM! pic.twitter.com/bfWTfdQ95b
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) September 4, 2024
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was noncommittal when asked if he needed to move to a different closer.
“I’m not going to answer that right now when we’re raw and emotional,” Boone said. “We’ll talk through it and do what we think is the best thing.”
Just last week, Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake told The Athletic that Holmes is a successful closer in MLB, saying, “I think it’s a little bit shortsighted to think otherwise.” Tuesday, Boone said he feels like Holmes’ stuff has graded out well and believes he’s throwing well. He acknowledged that wasn’t the case in Tuesday’s loss.
Holmes had trouble locating his pitches in the ninth. After starting the inning with a groundout, Holmes gave up a single on a sinker that was down the middle, back-to-back walks to load the bases and then a grand slam. He threw 25 pitches, and 13 were for balls.
“I definitely didn’t deserve to come out on top there with the way I was throwing,” Holmes said.
Boone said he did not consider a quick hook for Holmes when it became apparent he could not locate his pitches because of his closer’s ability to put the ball on the ground and always being one pitch away from getting out of any jam. Holmes entered Tuesday’s game with the second-highest ground-ball rate among all relievers.
Holmes said the main reason for his struggles was due to his delivery being out of sync. When Holmes has struggled in previous years, Boone said it has normally been because of poor mechanics. He hasn’t seen that out of Holmes this season.
“I don’t feel he’s had a lot of those stretches this year,” Boone said. “A lot of the times where we’ve lost out there, it’s been soft contact beating him. Obviously, that wasn’t the case tonight.
“I think he handles all this very well, and he’s tough-minded for it, but obviously some tough ones here of late. We gotta support him and make sure he’s right. He’s a big part of what we’re doing back there.”
With as devastating of a loss as this one was, it would be surprising if the Yankees did not consider other options for the closer role. Blake mentioned last week that it’s challenging to stay process-oriented even when results are positive or negative because “you’re going to make bad decisions when you do stuff like that.” The external pressure, though, to at least go with a closer by committee for the foreseeable future will be intense.
Jake Cousins is a high-strikeout reliever who has only one career save. Luke Weaver has zero career saves in his nine-year career but has been one of the Yankees’ best relievers this season. Tommy Kahnle could be the best option.
“We have options down there, and we’ll consider everything,” Boone said about potentially replacing Holmes.
Before the ninth inning, the Yankees started to crumble. The eighth inning began with DJ LeMahieu making an error on a routine chopper. Boone said LeMahieu lost the ball in the lights. Three batters later, Josh Jung singled up the middle on a play Gleyber Torres could have turned for an inning-ending double play; instead, a run scored and the inning continued. Boone called it a tough play for Torres because the ball was hit to his back hand and he thought his second baseman had an in-between hop. Nathaniel Lowe hit a sacrifice fly a few batters later to cut the Yankees’ lead to 4-3 entering the ninth.
Boone readjusted his defensive alignment with Holmes on the mound in the ninth by putting Anthony Rizzo at first base and Oswaldo Cabrera at second. It didn’t matter because Holmes, a ground-ball specialist, allowed a 407-foot blast to Langford.
With the loss, the Yankees fell a half-game back of the Baltimore Orioles for the American League East lead. With as close of a division race as this is, these are the kinds of losses that will be remembered if the Yankees’ season comes down to winning a three-game wild-card series.
“We can’t really worry about them,” Boone said of the Orioles. “We gotta do a better job finishing off games.”
At this point, it’s fair to wonder whether they could have done a better job finishing games with better bullpen acquisitions at the trade deadline.
(Photo of Clay Holmes walking off the field after giving up a grand slam walk-off: Jim Cowsert / USA Today)
