Pitcher Clay Holmes has a lot going on these day. He spent most of his offseason hearing trade rumors about his fate, and now he’s in camp trying to claim a rotation spot after struggling down the stretch last year. Holmes can’t do much to stop the rumor mill, of course, but according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, he’s added a pitch to try to salvage his consistency going into he season.
Holmes hasn’t thrown a curve since 2021, but he unveiled it during his opening outing of the spring against the Toronto Blue Jays. Right now it’s more than a show pitch but not something he can use to get outs, at least as Holmes sees it.
“I don’t really see it being a strikeout pitch,” Holmes said. “I think it’s more a pitch that I can throw for a strike early in counts when lefties are trying to see the ball close to them. Something that starts away could be a free strike type of thing. Maybe a little bit easier to throw for a strike than the sweeper to lefties. I could see it being useful there.”
The idea is to get left-handed hitters off the sweeper. They slugged .621 off his sweeper and .688 against his traditional slider, according to DiComo, and Holmes believes that happened because he didn’t have a pitch with a glove-side break he could trust against lefties.
This version of Holmes’ curve has more of a vertical break, and it’s designed to make it harder for left-handed hitters to track his breaking ball. It also tunnels down and in, so it changes hitters' horizontal eye level when he throws it. He tinkered with it during the winter, agnd against the Blue Jays on Monday one of the four new curves he throw ended up striking out Jays’ hitter Andres Gimenez.
Holmes also wants to alter hitters’ thought process as he displays his repertoire. He threw his sinker, changeup and sweeper about 75 percent of the time, according to DiComo, and he hopes the new pitch will allow him to alter sequences that perhaps became too familiar to hitters.
“To lefties, it’s like, ‘Do I want to throw a slider? Do I want the curveball? Is the cutter going to be more of a cutter versus a slider?’” Holmes said. “It’s just kind of seeing all that, how it plays and how things are feeling. Just kind of feeling it out.”
Holmes is also feeling out his place in the rotation. He’s competing with pitchers Sean Manaea, David Peterson, Jonah Tong and Kodai Senga for spots in the back half of the rotation, and there aren’t enough slots to accommodate all of them. In that sense, his new curve could become a lifeline that helps him secure his rotation status going into the season.
“It doesn’t feel too strange,” Holmes said. “It’s not like I’m having to learn something crazy. It’s more so just seeing what’s still there, what we got with it.”