The Yankees, it seems, have a potential “mess” on their hands. That would be the bullpen, of course, which has not been that bad statistically—the relievers have a 27-19 record and a 3.69 ERA—but which has had trouble holding leads in big situations, highlighted by the 11 blown saves from closer Clay Holmes, who has been demoted out of the role in favor of more of a closer-by-committee approach.
It’s not an ideal way to handle a bullpen heading into the playoffs, where you’d like to know what relievers can be trusted in the varying situations that are sure to present themselves. There is not much on the roster among the relief crew that manager Aaron Boone can trust.
One scout told New York Post MLB insider Jon Heyman, “Their bullpen is still a mess.”
But, perhaps, the way for the Yankees to best clean up the mess is to turn to the most reliable relief option and hope he can handle the closing role in the playoffs. That would be 31-year-old journeyman Luke Weaver, who has pitched for six teams in nine years in the big leagues and recorded the first save of his MLB career on September 6 (his second came a week later).
Yes, from Heyman’s perspective, Weaver is the best option Boone has as a playoff closer.
Luke Weaver Has 2 Career Saves
Here’s what Heyman wrote on Tuesday morning, in an article titled, “Tweaks the Yankees should make to end their 15-year World Series drought”:
“Employ Luke Weaver as primary closer. Clay Holmes is a solid closer who ran into some bad luck, but it’s not worth the distraction of bringing him back full-time and reminding everyone that he blew 11 saves. Weaver’s simply better this year (0.95 WHIP, 3.64 strikeout-to-walk ratio) anyway, so it’s not worth resurrecting this issue.”
While Weaver’s numbers have been good so far this season, his lack of closing experience has to be worrisome. He has made 202 career appearances, which means that fewer than 1% of his games have yielded saves. Is it a good idea to give the ball to finish games to a guy who has never done it before?
Yankees Should Make More Changes: Heyman
Heyman had several other tweaks that could make the Yankees better down the stretch run and into the playoffs, including resting center fielder Aaron Judge more in the remaining two weeks of the season, to help turn around his mediocre past performances in the playoffs. Moving Jazz Chisholm into the leadoff role and choosing a starting rotation of Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, Carlos Rodon and Clarke Schmidt were the others.
Those fixes are easy enough to make, and Boone is, indeed, likely to rest Judge and go with that pitching quartet in the playoffs. The lineup shift might not happen, but no matter—the real problem that could again keep the Yankees from a World Series trophy is the relief crew.
For the past two weeks, at least, Boone has moved the closing job to Weaver. But Boone is conservative by nature, and could gravitate back to Holmes when the playoffs get going. Back when Holmes was actively blowing saves, Boone defended him.
“I don’t feel he’s had a lot of those stretches this year,” Boone said. “A lot of the times where we’ve lost out there, it’s been soft contact beating him. Obviously, that wasn’t the case tonight.
“I think he handles all this very well, and he’s tough-minded for it, but obviously some tough ones here of late. We gotta support him and make sure he’s right. He’s a big part of what we’re doing back there.”
