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For three months, the 2022 Yankees seemed set to go down as one of the greatest baseball teams ever. They were on pace to match or break the major league record of 116 victories and, of greater consequence, to win their first World Series title since 2009.
Instead, they failed to win 100 games before they were swept by the Astros in the ALCS, and a loaded roster of forensic investigators would be needed to identify all the reasons why. But one player embodied the strange narrative arc of the 2022 Yankees as much as anyone did: Clay Holmes. He was Mariano Rivera over the first half of the season, and something substantially less than that over the second.
Holmes made the All-Star team in his first full season in The Bronx, and before the break he looked nothing like the pitcher with the 5.57 ERA that the Pirates had traded away. When Yankees manager Aaron Boone gave him the news that he was headed to Los Angeles for the Midsummer Classic, Holmes responded, “I’m glad it’s as a Yankee.”
Like Rivera’s cutter, Holmes’ sinker was a terrifying weapon … until it wasn’t.
The first sign of real trouble came on July 12, after Holmes had converted on 16 of 18 save opportunities. He imploded in the ninth inning while turning a 3-0 lead over the Reds into a 4-3 defeat, inflating his 0.46 ERA to a more human 1.37. In August, Holmes landed on the injured list with lower back spasms after he blew three saves and allowed seven runs in five appearances. A bullpen that had already lost Chad Green and Michael King for the season was suddenly in a state of disrepair.
Holmes later overcame a shoulder strain to become a reliable playoff option, though not reliable enough for Boone to summon him amid a Game 3 disaster in the ALDS against Cleveland that put everything on the brink.
