Clay Holmes talks his ‘unique’ sinker, being Yankees closer, non-baseball talents
Yankees reliever Clay Holmes, currently filling the closer’s role with Aroldis Chapman sidelined, takes a swing at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: What’s it like when you’re in a zone the way you’ve been?
A: For me being in a zone, it’s instead of thinking so much, you’re able to see things. I don’t really have to think about what I’m trying to do, or what I need to do, I can just see them happening, I can visualize them in my head. You see it happening, and you just do it. You have confidence in what’s going to happen before it does. I think that’s the place that every athlete tries to get to.
Q: What is unique about your sinker?
A: I think one thing that makes it unique is just the angle that I throw it from. I’m definitely a little higher slot, it creates a little more angle along with the sink. I think gaining that understanding why my sinker moves the way it does has helped me make it more consistent. I’m able to command it better, but also repeat my best movement a little more often.
Q: How did you gain that understanding?
A: Really through some trial and error stuff. I remember 2019, Jared Hughes was with the Philadelphia Phillies at the time. I saw him at the team hotel, he asked me if I wanted to ride to the park with him, so I did. He was just asking me about my sinker, and he was looking into a lot of things and he kind of showed me his process and the questions he has with his sinker. He’s telling me about my sinker, and he actually knew more about my sinker than I did. It created a curiosity in me. I think from then on, whether it’s conversations with him. … I’ve read just a little bit with Bart Smith, a guy that’s pretty familiar with some of the sink shift weight stuff, I just really started to dig into it and learn about it.
Q: Describe your scoreless innings streak, at 23 innings heading into Saturday.
A: I’m a guy that likes to look at my pitch metrics and keep up with kind of how things are trending and what I need to pay attention to and put focus on. I’m definitely aware of it, but my focus goes back to the things I can control and kind of where my pitch metrics are. If I know that those things are trending in the right direction, the sinker’s sinking like I want it, I try to go put up a zero every time I go out there, whether it’s you’re on some type of streak or you’re coming off a bad one.
Q: What is so much fun about the closer role?
A: If you’re closing a game, your team has the win, and it’s ultimately up to you to kind of close that out. Any pitcher that is competitive enjoys helping the team win in any way they can. It’s fun being trusted in those situations.
Q: Do you need a different mentality?
A: For me, nothing really changes. You can’t really control what the fans are doing or game situation. Ultimately what you control is your pitches. If I control my pitches and I have a good idea what’s going on, then I like the chances of my success no matter what that situation is.
Q: Do you think about the All-Star Game?
A: Any player with aspirations, that’s a goal of theirs. I think it would be a great honor and such a cool experience.
Q: Describe the first time you pitched at Yankee Stadium.
A: I remember the first time I put on pinstripes. It feels different. It’s definitely an opportunity that nobody, especially in this game, takes for granted, to put on the pinstripes. I just remember the lights being a little brighter … it just feels like you’re in the big leagues. Just thinking about the people that’s taken the mound, it was just a really cool experience, and something I’ll always remember and never take for granted no matter how many times I get to do it.
Q: What is it like pitching on the New York stage?
A: For me, I think it just draws out that competitive nature in me. I hate losing, and here you’re expected to win. The expectations, it just brings a little more energy, a little more focus, a little more edge. People expect it, and us players expect it. I think it brings out the best in some people.
Q: What do you like best about this team?
A: We can win in a lot of different ways. We have the 10-run games we put up or we beat someone 1-0. They’re all fun, and I think we’re capable of doing it all.
Q: Describe the New York Yankees Way.
A: Just very professional. Staying on top of the details. Expecting to win. And kind of hold yourself to the highest standard.
Q: Whatever comes to mind: Aaron Judge.
A: A leader. Heckuva ballplayer. To be so big, he moves so well. Just a great clubhouse guy. I’ve seen him do it many times since I’ve been here, but he was welcoming from Day 1. He’s the guy that you definitely want on your team for a lot of reasons. It’s been fun to watch him.
Q: Jameson Taillon.
A: He thinks curious, he’s always learning, he’s s great guy to just have good baseball conversation with. Just a good guy to hang out with. Obviously a friend that I’ve been through a lot with. I would trust him with a lot of things.
Q: Gerrit Cole.
A: He has the stuff to get anybody out, he has four elite pitches, but he knows how to pitch, so it’s fun just seeing how he goes about his business, just learning from him. He’s an ace.
Q: Michael King.
A: He’s similar to me, so we have some great conversations with the pitch metrics and sinkers and stuff. Just a fun, lighthearted guy.
Q: Matt Blake.
A: He’s such a personable guy. Communicates very well. He’s made me feel very comfortable just asking any question. And he’s always been there to help. He’s very knowledgeable about a lot of things but he can speak it to different people different ways, which makes him very effective.
Q: Aaron Boone.
A: He’s a steady presence. It’s like he has just a great perspective on things.
Q: Describe your mound mentality.
A: I think I’m more of kind of a problem solver, analytical thinker.
Q: What drives you?
A: I hate losing. I love winning and whatever it takes to be a little better than somebody else. … I love this game, and I love competing.
Q: What can you tell me about your valedictorian speech at Slocomb, Ala., H.S.?
A: (Laugh) Not much, I think that was one time in my life where I was kind of blacked out. I think I was more nervous giving that speech than anything I’ve ever done. But it was a cool honor. I took pride in it. Definitely had a lot of classmates I respected a lot, and was just super thankful for the opportunity.
Q: You must remember some of it.
A: I talked a little bit about just having passion and perseverance. Two things that I believe, that as far as my life and other successful people that just typically find something they’re super passionate about, and there’s gonna be adversity, and it’s how you deal with it, how you persevere through it that ultimately is gonna determine where you end up.
Q: You got all A’s. How do you explain your 4.0 GPA?
A: I just enjoyed learning, I still do. I enjoyed paying attention in class, and the note-taking. Then obviously I think just the competitive part of me took it serious. I don’t know, it was something that I took pride in, and wanted to have good grades.
Q: How many were in your graduating class?
A: Around a hundred, probably maybe a little more.
Q: What is the biggest obstacle or adversity you had to overcome?
A: Going into the 2020 season, I kind of made some adjustments, was kind of having a good spring, only had a few outings, but I ended up getting hit with a comebacker, broke my leg. Then COVID happened. I was in the boot during the quarantine shutdown. Then my first game back [2020], went down with an elbow strain. It was a point where I felt like I was starting to gain some traction, and just kind of dealt with some bad blows there, and I think ultimately that kind of put me in a spot where it just kind of created a sense of urgency for me. I knew I had the talent, but I knew I needed to figure some things out that were really gonna work for me. I started working with Tread Athletics and took off from there.
Q: What do you remember about the Nelson Cruz comebacker?
A: It was a spring training outing in Fort Myers [Fla.]. I threw a sinker a little up and away, but he hit like a little one hop, it kind of skipped out and I followed through and basically all my weight was on my right leg and I kind of twisted around to try to field it, missed it, it hit me on the outside of my right leg. As soon as it hit me, I felt my leg kind of give … couldn’t really walk the next morning, so went in and got some X-rays and CT scan and it showed the fracture there, so I was put in a boot for six weeks.
Q: Tell me about your 2014 Tommy John surgery.
A: I think I was 20 years old at the time, almost 21. It was definitely a lot to learn for me to go through that process, and obviously being away from the game, getting it taken away from you, it’s always hard as a player. But I think for me, having Jameson Taillon, he did his first Tommy John, we did it together, he had it like two weeks after me. We were able to kind of lean on each other, learn from each other. It’s definitely a very long kind of tedious process that takes a lot of patience, but definitely I think it made me better as a player, as a person.
Q: Did you have any fears either time that your career could be over?
A: Some normal doubts. I think for me the injuries in 2020 were super-frustrating. It’s just one of those things where you can let it frustrate you and … get the best of you, or you can make the most of the situation and find ways to use it to get better and learn more things about yourself and your body and your delivery. I think when you take that route things always end up kind of working out for you.
Q: Right after you got your driver’s license, what happened to your first truck?
A: It’s a pretty crazy story (chuckle). I’d just turned 16, got a white Ford F-150, awesome truck, and because of the time in school year, where I had to park was a little closer to our baseball field, and there was some bad weather one day, I think it was less than a week after I got the truck. It ripped the roof off the baseball dugout, and it landed on my truck. I was the only truck in the parking lot to have any damage, but it ended up totaling that truck, and ended up … truck shopping again (laugh).
Q: It was a tornado?
A: Yeah, it was a little tornado, and we had the whole tornado drill in the hallways and everything, and they pulled me out of class about an hour later (chuckle) ’cause they needed me come look at something.
Q: Why were you the only one on your baseball team not to forge a note to leave school to go to Zack’s Family Restaurant?
A: I want to say it was a playoff game, something we had that day. I don’t know, I just wasn’t comfortable doing it. I don’t know if it was like a superstition thing, or I just didn’t want to get in any trouble for any reason with all the baseball stuff going on, I don’t know.
Q: Who nicknamed you “Smoke”?
A: It was kind of a time I started throwing hard. I think one of my Ag teachers, I think he may have started it and my cousin kind of kept it rolling.
Q: How did you become so good at pingpong?
A: I grew up with two brothers, and my dad enjoyed playing. We just had a table and it got super competitive.
Q: I hear you were a good rebounder in basketball.
A: I think I just enjoyed the physicality of the sport. The centers and forwards on the teams were football players trying to play basketball.
Q: Describe the Slocomb Tomato Festival.
A: Supposedly Slocomb’s the Tomato Capital of the World or something.
Q: Any Adventureland memories?
A: It was the putt-putt place, and that’s where we went for the batting cages. It’s kind of the go-to birthday party spot growing up.
Q: Describe your grandfather’s homemade golf course.
A: He retired, he worked at a little local regional airport, but before that, there’s a lot of farming with our family. So there was kind of some farmland around where he lived, and he turned some of that land around his house to like a little nine-hole golf course as a retirement project. Me and my brothers and my cousins would put a lot of work in with him, and it was a fun little thing for our family, but it was kind of a dream that he always had too.
Q: What’s your handicap today?
A: Ever since I got moved to the bullpen I haven’t played much golf to be honest (laugh). I still enjoy getting out and hitting around, but I can’t take it too serious, I get pretty frustrated.
Q: Were you an Alabama football fan?
A: I am. My whole family is. My dad grew up in the Paul “Bear” Bryant Era, and I ended up committing to go to Auburn, and that was one of the toughest things that he had to probably deal with, but I had everything paid for, so he couldn’t say no to it.
Q: Until the Pirates offered you $1.2 million to sign.
A: Yeah, then we didn’t have to cross that bridge.
Q: Where did you propose to wife Ashlyn?
A: I proposed in Nashville, there’s a little walking trail park that we would kind of go to. I think the first time we ever went to Nashville to visit my brother there, we kind of walked around on our own. Fast-forward years later when I proposed to her, she was living in Nashville, things kind of came full circle, and I felt like it’s just a meaningful spot to us.
Q: What are your thoughts on Memorial Day?
A: It’s such a great time just to honor the military and this freedom we have. For me it’s kind of the beginning of summer and the service that people have given to our country.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Tiger Woods, Albert Einstein, Jesus.
Q: Favorite movie.”
A: “Star Wars” fan, “Lord of the Rings.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Denzel Washington.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Anna Kendrick.
Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?
A: Eric Church.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: A good ribeye steak.
Q: Why were you a Yankees fan growing up in Slocomb?
A: I loved winning, and I think that just kind of drew me to the Yankees.
Q: Who were your favorite Yankees?
A: I grew up a big fan of Roger Clemens. … Mike Mussina was another fun one to watch, his curveball.
Q: Your Little League team one year was the Yankees. The real Yankees won the World Series that year.
A: I was 8, I think. I guess someone with the Yankees, I’m not sure who it was, sent some World Series hats where they had just like the World Series thing on the side of it. It was like a little gift at the end of the year for our team, with being the Yankees and the Yankees won the World Series that year, it was pretty cool.
Q: What is your message to Yankees fans?
A: Keep up the support. I think we have big things coming. I think if we can weather whatever little things come our way, I think we have big plans, and I think we can look forward to playing in early November this year.
Q: Could you imagine what New York City would be like if the Yankees played the Mets in a World Series?
A: It’d be pretty amazing. Obviously both teams are off to good starts this year, but it’d be incredible. It’d be something that I would love being a part of, and maybe it’s this year.
Q: You pitched in a Subway Series game during the season.
A: I got to pitch last year in the 9/11 game. And just seeing what baseball means to New York, and kind of what it’s meant to New York especially around the time September 11, it was pretty incredible. It’s definitely a game I’ll never forget, and it’s probably one of the best games I’ve ever been a part of. … Subway Series, I feel like it never disappoints.
