So the Yankees are , according to manager Aaron Boone. But Clay Holmes will also be part of the mix going forward. This announcement comes one day after Holmes blew his MLB-high 11th save of the season in 40 tries two clear of the rest of the field. It also came on a day when you couldnt simply type Holmes name into Xs search engine without it automatically widening the search to Clay Holmes terrorist. So, yes: these are trying times indeed in the last two innings of baseball games for the Yankees. (And as Mets fans read those last 18 words, they nod ruefully in quiet sympathy with a little bit of understanding Manny Sanguillen Jersey . Such is the busine s of watching baseball in New York in 2024. The fun doesnt even start until Take Me Out to the Ballgame is over.) For all the folks pleading that the Yankees needed to not only demote Holmes but ship him to the instructional league, this was something, . But its also the best of a host of bad options. And even this hoping to magically find a hot hand wholl remove the fear factor from the ninth inning isnt a reliable plan. Clay Holmes struggles have left the Yankees with few options in the closers role. Robert Sabo for NY Post Remember how terrible Edwin Diaz looked earlier this year four blown saves in eight appearances in May? When the Mets gave him a breather, two different fill-ins Adam Ottavino and Jake Diekman immediately blew saves in two of the next seven games. And when Diaz , the team blew three more. Every now and again, it helps to remember that without the brilliance of the great Mariano Rivera, the Yankees might not have won any of the five championships they collected from 1996-2009. Rivera e sentially rewrote the definition of a setup man in 1996, then from 1998-2000, and again in 2009, he registered the 27th out of the games that clinched titles. More From Mike Vaccaro But it also helps to remember that without , the Yankees mightve added three more titles. Sandy Alomar Jr. foiled Rivera in Cleveland in 1997, Luis Gonzalez (and others) sabotaged him in Phoenix in 2001 and a host of Red Sox led by Dave Roberts spoiled the party in Boston in 2004. Even the very best who ever lived are human. Even Tom Hanks made Joe vs. the Volcano. Even the Beatles recorded Why Dont We Do It in the Road. And even Mariano Rivera wasnt always perfect. Its a hard job. Almost every time you walk on a field a game is in the balance. There are no breezy first-inning 6-3 groundouts for closers. Edwin Diaz hasnt been the lights-out closer the Mets need this season. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post You can give me a thousand more situations just like that, Joe Torre said in 2004, and Im gonna give Mo the ball every single time. All you can do is have faith that excellent players are going to be excellent and sometimes thats just not realistic, Terry Collins said in 2016, referring to Jeurys Familia, who saved 94 games in 2015 and 16 but surrendered home runs to Kansas Citys Alex Gordon and San Franciscos Conor Gillaspie to kneecap both seasons in October. Reliable closers provide oxygen for a team in its most dire moments. And sometimes seasons die because of them. Almost all relief pitchers again, even elite ones are maddeningly fickle. Thats the mystery of the gig. Sometimes theyre unhittable, and sometimes theyre unpitchable. Sometimes in the same season. Hell, sometimes in the same week. And yet, in the offseason, the headlines are still generated by the acquisition of sluggers, and rotation pitchers. Bullpens are built in silence and in quiet desperation. Sometimes that works out fine. Holmes, after all, became a fine closer in the first place when the Yankees stopped waiting for Aroldis Chapmans radar-gun-shattering velocity to translate to reliability in big moments. The great Mariano Rivera had plenty of downs amid his many ups in his Yankees career. Charles Wenzelberg Of course, even in Chapmans most volatile full year, 2019, he had a save percentage of 88.1. Holmes and Diaz are both roughly 73 percent, which is unworkable for teams with ambitions. Of the other nine members of the top 10 in saves besides Holmes this year, the next-lowest percentage is Diazs brother, Alexis, who checks in at 86 percent for a lousy Reds team. Heres why Boones decision makes perfect sense. As likely as anyone else, the pitcher from the motor pool who may emerge as the best man to replace Holmes is Holmes. Edwin Diaz, for all his misfires this year, has also shown flashes of his old self. And Holmes is the same guy who, as late as May 20, appearing in his 21st game, was 13-for-13 in save chances through 20 innings and 81 hitters with a Blutarsky ERA 0.00. Cant be better than that. That day, against the Mariners, he inherited a 4-1 lead in the ninth and gave up four runs and took both a blown save and a lo s. Its been a scuffle since. Neither team needed to sweat out a ninth inning Wednesday, (thank to a fine team-wide effort in the bullpen), despite some ninth-inning noise. Still, the Yankees remain only a half-game out of first in the AL East after Wednesday, the Mets still only a half-game out of the wild card. Theres no telling where wed be as a baseball city with two excellent bullpens. Or, in truth, two ordinary ones. Billy Mckinney Jersey