'Really good weapon': How Clay Holmes went from no-name reliever to elite Yankees' closer

MINNEAPOLIS – Speaking about Clay Holmes’ amazing sinker, Gerrit Cole calls is “close, if not the best’’ pitch right now in baseball.

And then Cole added something that should really scare the American League.

“There’s still a level up there.’’

We're talking about the same right-hander who was toiling in obscurity this time last year in the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen, with an ERA around 5.00.

And now, with the New York Yankees? 

He's a 6-foot-5, 245-pound diamond in the rough - the best reliever in Major League Baseball over the first one-third of the season.

"The stuff and the underlying performance was better than he showed in his results with the Pirates,'' said Yankees assistant general manager Michael Fishman. 

Despite the high walk totals and high ERA, "our projections still had him as a very good reliever when we were acquiring him, before really adjusting anything.''

So, who gets the credit for unearthing this gem, sending two minor league infielders to Pittsburgh in exchange for a guy who's 0.34 ERA through Wednesday was lower than his uniform number (35)?

"Credit the computer,'' Fishman said. "Anybody could look at our projections of him as somebody to target.''

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Taking charge 

By Saturday, Aroldis Chapman is expected to throw off a mound in New York.

It will be the lefty’s first bullpen session since landing on the injured list May 24, due to left Achilles tendinitis.

At some point later this month, Chapman will return to the Yanks' bullpen, but not as the closer - at least not in the conventional sense.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone would only commit to Chapman being a “big-time arm’’ at the back end of the bullpen.

Chapman’s feelings won’t be spared, not in his free-agent walk year and not with the Yankees rolling along with MLB’s best record.

Best reliever in baseball?

Setup relievers who are suddenly thrust in that closer's role can become too fine. The safety net is gone, the job is right there – finish it out, and get your team into the clubhouse with a win.

“Historically, the last three outs are the toughest to get, nobody can really deny that,’’ Holmes says.

But he’s earned that trust now, after a terrific Yankees debut last August, and two-plus months this season of being the game’s best reliever.

Pitchers with just four saves in a month rarely win the AL Reliever of the Month award, but Holmes did it – because he didn’t allow a run in 12 appearances.

In fact, his streak of scoreless appearances reached 24 straight games as the Yankees arrived in Minnesota to play the AL Central-leading Twins.

His current 26-inning scoreless streak – tops in the majors this year – is the longest by a Yankees reliever since David Robertson’s 26.1-inning streak that extended from 2011 into the 2012 season.

The 'miracle' pitch

Here come the video-game numbers, courtesy of Statcast:

Holmes, 29, is producing groundballs at a silly 82.8 percent rate.

Of the 64 pitches that batters have put in play, only one has been “barreled.’’

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Holmes is producing a 33-percent swing-and-miss rate, his ERA is a minute 0.34, he has 28 strikeouts vs. three walks in 25 appearances.

And he’s accomplishing this as a sinker-slider pitcher with the emphasis on a heavy sinker – a pitch he throws 80 percent of the time.

Remember when batters knew Mariano Rivera’s cutter was coming and could mostly hope to flair a single with a sawed-off bat?

It’s that kind of miracle pitch.

“One of the nastiest pitches in baseball,’’ Boone said recently.

“Right up with one of the best pitches in baseball,’’ said Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, who did not recall it being this sharp when they were in the Pirates’ system together.

Holmes began finetuning that pitch once the Yankees obtained him from Pittsburgh just before last year’s trade deadline, sending two minor league infielders – Diego Castillo and Hoy Park – to the Pirates.

“It’s a pitch that I’ve been able to trust, especially in the zone, when I’m in good counts,’’ said Holmes. “It’s been a really good weapon.’’