Former Slocomb High School standout Clay Holmes lost his role as the New York Yankees’ closer during the 2024 Major League season. But that hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for what’s ahead – the World Series.
The Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers square off in Game 1 of the best-of-seven Fall Classic on Friday night, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:08 CDT at Dodger Stadium. FOX will televise the game.
“That’s what we all strive for and hope for,” Holmes said. “We all have this vision of how great it would be to rally the city, the fans and all that would come along with it. But I think it’s probably better than anything we can imagine.”
An American League All-Star in the 2022 and 2024 seasons, Holmes will pitch in the World Series for the first time.
Even though Aaron Boone replaced Holmes with the Luke Weaver as New York’s closer, the Yankees manager hasn’t been shy about using Holmes out of the bullpen in other spots.
While Holmes had 30 saves for the Yankees in 2024, he also led the Majors with 13 blown saves. Since the last of those blown saves on Sept. 18, Holmes has pitched in 13 games, including every game in New York’s four-game division playoff series against the Kansas City Royals and all but one of the five games in the American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Guardians.
The first 11 of those appearances were scoreless for Holmes. But in the final two, the Guardians touched him for three runs, including Cleveland designated hitter David Fry’s game-winning home run with two out in bottom of the 10th of Game 3 on Oct. 17.
“My confidence, my identity, who I am and what I can do is not really tied into some title that’s given to me,” Holmes said about the closer job. “Obviously it’s an honor and a great thing, but knowing who I am, knowing what I’m capable of and the pitcher I can be — the person I am — those things weren’t stripped away.”
Holmes returns Alabama to the World Series after no player from a state high school or college participated in the Texas Rangers’ five-game victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks last year.
The most recent World Series player with Alabama baseball roots is David Robertson from Paul Bryant High School in Cottondale and the Crimson Tide program. Robertson pitched in four games, earned a save and was not scored on for Philadelphia in the 2022 World Series, although the Phillies lost in six games to the Houston Astros.
The most recent player from an Alabama high school or college to play for the winner in the World Series is Buckhorn High School’s Kyle Wright, who made two appearances out of the bullpen in the Atlanta Braves’ victory over the Astros in six games in 2021.
In his final two seasons at Slocomb, Holmes struck out 210 in 144.3 innings. He had planned to play at Auburn, but after drafting Holmes in the ninth round in 2011, the Pittsburgh Pirates were determined to sign him. Pittsburgh needed a $1.2 million signing bonus to keep Holmes from going to Auburn. Before Pittsburgh’s deal with Holmes, the biggest signing bonus for a ninth-round pick had been $750,000.
Holmes reached the Major Leagues in 2018. When the Pirates traded Holmes to the Yankees in exchange for two minor-leaguers during the 2021 season, the 6-foot-5 right-hander had a 5-7 record with a 5.57 earned-run average and no saves in 91 MLB appearances.
Since joining New York, Holmes has a 19-15 record with a 2.69 ERA and 74 saves in 220 regular-season games. He also has a 1.72 ERA in 14 postseason appearances with the Yankees.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
