Amid Clay Holmes' struggles, Aaron Boone says Yankees will get 'creative' with closer role in short-term

ARLINGTON, Texas – Clay Holmes, Yankees closer no more?

It appears that way, at least in the near future.

After Tuesday night’s 7-4 loss to the Rangers, which featured Holmes’ MLB-leading 11th blown save of the season – a result sealed on Wyatt Langford’s walk-off grand slam – Aaron Boone declined to clarify Holmes’ job security.

"I’m not going to answer that right now when we’re raw and emotional,” the Yankees manager said. “We’ll talk through it and do what we think is the best thing.”

Before Wednesday night’s game, Boone indicated that best thing may well be someone other than Holmes closing.

“In the short-term, we’ll kind of just get a little creative with it,” Boone said. “So it could be him (Holmes) on given nights, but in the short-term just trying to put these guys in the best position to be successful and how that shakes out may vary a little bit every night.”

Boone had met with Holmes earlier to tell the closer, a free agent after this season, of the organization’s thoughts. Not surprisingly, Holmes, exceedingly popular among his teammates in the clubhouse, told Boone and told reporters that he’s good with whatever role he’s put in and that winning games is priority No. 1, especially at this point of the season.

The most pertinent part of the equation, of course, is if not Holmes, then who?

Rival scouts assigned to the Yankees have touted the stuff of, in no particularly order, Jake Cousins, Luke Weaver and Tommy Kahnle as being the most likely to effectively transfer to the closer job.

But, as the best ever to do the job, Mariano Rivera, used to say, one never knows how a pitcher will react to the role until they’re actually in it. The ninth inning, the Hall of Famer often said, is like none other.

“There’s a makeup component to it and a lot of our guys don’t have a ton of experience closing out games in those situations,” Boone said. “But I would like to think that we have a lot of guys with good makeup that are capable of getting three outs, whether it’s in the seventh or the ninth.”

Boone has said throughout the season that Holmes has, for the most part, thrown the ball well. Eleven blown saves can’t be outright dismissed but the righthander, even after giving up four runs Tuesday, has a 3.27 ERA, hardly a disastrous number.

“I feel like I’ve thrown the ball pretty well overall, (but) definitely some spots that I can learn from and (take) with me,” Holmes said after Tuesday’s setback.

Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt are set to rejoin the club after stints on the injured list this weekend – Gil is slated to start Friday followed by Schmidt on Saturday – and the Yankees eventually will have to make some decisions on their rotation, assuming all starters remain healthy (which never can be assumed, naturally).

If they do, the Yankees won’t be employing a six-man rotation, meaning one starter will end up in the bullpen at some point during the stretch run. Schmidt, prior to developing into a starter last season, has extensive bullpen experience, but there’s also no shortage of those inside and outside of the Yankees organization who haven’t considered what the fireballing Gil might look like as a late-inning option.

“At some point, if we’re healthy and all buzzing, there will probably be a starter that does go to the back end of that bullpen,” Boone said. “I think that could end up being a number of candidates. Hopefully, it’s something that kind of declares itself here over the next 10 days, two weeks.”

It is relevant to note Boone said something similar about being creative in closing situations after Holmes’ previous blown save, which came Aug. 18 against the Tigers in the Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa.

Holmes ended up remaining as the closer, recording three saves and not allowing an earned run over his next five games leading up to Tuesday night’s implosion.

“I think it’s important to differentiate last night compared to what I would call the ball not bouncing his way in a lot of these games where it hasn’t been far off at all,” Boone said Wednesday. “Last night, he was a little off, which happens to the best of guys on a given night. Just with losing the strike zone a little bit, not probably getting his sinker to where he wanted last night at times, and just felt like this was the right thing to do going into today.”