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More and more, it is becoming a topic of conversation around baseball, as the lines between what is expected from a starter and what can be given to a pitching staff by a deep bullpen are blurred. The Yankees know this well–they saw the Dodgers use a bullpen game in the World Series, after all.
It was unsuccessful, but still, the fact that Los Angeles went out and used bullpen arms for the entirety of Game 4 of the most important series of the year says something about the state of starting pitching in MLB.
Combine that reality with the way that demoted Yankees All-Star closer Clay Holmes pitched this season, and it is clear why there are suggestions this winter that Holmes–a free-agent projected to land a four-year, $55 million by Spotrac–could be signed on to leave the Yankees, but as a starting pitcher despite having not started a big-league game since he was a rookie with the Pirates in 2018.
Yankees Had to Make Closer Move
Holmes did not pitch badly last year in the closer’s role for the Yankees, going 3-5 with a 3.14 ERA. But teams had a tendency to make contact against him–even weak contact–that came at especially bad times, leading to a league-high 10 blown saves.
In September, the Yankees removed Holmes from the closer’s role, demoting him in favor of Luke Weaver despite manager Aaron Boone’s insistence that Holmes was a victim of bad luck.
Moving Holmes out of high-leverage situations, then, and using his two great breaking pitches–a sinker and a slider–in a starting role makes some sense. He would likely need to add more reliance on a fastball, too, but that’s not a difficult pitch to work on.
Former Mets and Orioles executive Jim Duquette, one of the hosts of “Power Alley” on MLB Radio, spoke about the prospects of Holmes converting into a starter.
“There are stories of it happening,” Duquette said. “Because of the dearth of quality starting pitching, one of the ideas is, let’s see if there’s a reliever that profiles out as a guy that could make that conversion. If you look at Holmes and his career—what, he was, early on in his minor-league career, he was a starter. He does have experience in that.”
Clay Holmes Pitch Mix ‘Kind of Interesting’ as a Starter
Whether as a reliever or as a starter, Holmes is very unlikely to be back with the Yankees. But he is an intriguing option to convert to the starting five, even if it’s not in the Bronx.
“He has a pitch mix that’s kind of interesting,” Duquette said. “Not really a fourth pitch, but he does have three. He doesn’t throw the four-seamer (fastball) much but he has a sinker, slider and he added a sweeper. But, adding a four-seamer wouldn’t be that big of a deal in terms of pitch mix. I think that part of it is interesting.
“We know what the upside is. What is the downside? If you’re looking at him as one of your five guys and he doesn’t pitch well, you can always put him back in the bullpen, but you’ve made this investment presuming you’ve got to pay him a little more as a starter.
“There’s confidence he may be able to do it. … I think with Holmes, if he is interested in it, you try to do it.”
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Ex-GM Sounds off on Demoted Yankees All-Star Making Major Change