PUT ON A SAVE FACE
Manager: Yanks could keep committee to close in playoffs
When the Yankees start the playoffs next month, they might lack a true closer — and Aaron Boone, at least for now, sounds OK with that.
Since Clay Holmes’ 11th blown save prompted Boone to get “creative” with his end-of-game pitching plans last week, Luke Weaver picked up his first save. Holmes tossed an eighth inning. With 17 games remaining, nobody has emerged with the job, and Boone is “comfortable” if the Yankees’ late-season pivot extends into the postseason.
“If we end up settling on a guy that ends up closing out games all the time to most of the time, that’s fine, too,” Boone said before the Yankees lost 5-0 to the Royals on Tuesday in The Bronx. “I’m gonna let that evolve.”
If that unfolds, it would mark a stark contrast from the Yankees teams that relied on Mariano Rivera to win World Series titles, that even stuck with the shakiness of Aroldis Chapman in recent Octobers. Closers lose their jobs during the season. It happened briefly with Edwin Diaz this year in Queens. But if the Mets crack the postseason field, he’ll throw their ninth innings.
That doesn’t mean Boone’s strategy can’t work. Then-rookie Adam Wainwright saved four games during the Cardinals’ World Series run in 2006. The Rangers’ José Leclerc collected just four saves during the regular season last year before saving four others during their run to a title. But the Yankees — and Boone — would lose the stability that anchors any
bullpen at any juncture of the season.
The simplest solution revolves around Holmes rediscovering the form that led to his All-Star Game cameo in July and his career-high with 29 saves. But in his last 18 appearances, Holmes has collected eight saves, blown five others and compiled a 4.24 ERA — up from 2.82 in his opening 39 of the campaign — to jeopardize that scenario’s feasibility. His inability to string appearances like that together prompted the change in the first place, which, Boone acknowledged, complicates communicating which innings pitchers will throw on a certain day or across a certain series.
“In a perfect world, I guess, maybe you have that,” Boone said of the communication, “but that’s not always the reality. The reality I’m dealing with is I feel like we have a lot of really good pitchers down there, and my job, our job, is to get them in the best positions to hopefully impact us and win games.
“So that’s kinda the message. It may not be the most ideal message for everyone, but that’s OK.”
Holmes said he doesn’t care if the postseason arrives without any clarity on whether he’ll be the closer, the set-up man or something entirely different. His
final two weeks of the regular season will essentially double as an audition — just as it will for the rest of the Yankees relievers — that could even continue into the playoffs.
“I think a lot of us out there, we’ve kinda been trained that way to be ready for anything,” Holmes told The Post. “And whenever that comes, we know we have to stay ready and be our best self when we’re out there.”