Yankees are down to closer by committee vs. Mets

Yankees manager Aaron Boone (17) in the seventh inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium, on Sunday, August 21, 2022 Credit: Noah K. Murray
The Mets came to Yankee Stadium on Monday night with the best closer in baseball in Edwin Diaz.
The Yankees? They had no idea who would close a game if they happened to have the lead in the ninth inning in the second round of the Subway Series.
With Scott Effross (shoulder strain) joining the sore-backed Clay Holmes on the injured list on Monday, the Yankees are down to closer-by-committee.
That was obvious on Sunday when, with Effross unavailable, manager Aaron Boone had Lou Trivino throw the final 2 1/3 innings (and close out his own win) in a 4-2 victory over Toronto.
The Yankees have a pitcher with 315 career saves who is making $16 million sitting in their bullpen. But Boone did not go to Aroldis Chapman on Sunday after the former closer was wild in back-to-back poor outings this week.
Chapman, who lost his closer’s job to Holmes, had nine consecutive scoreless outings before a pair of clunkers this week in which he couldn’t find the plate.
So when Boone had a lefthander warm up in the ninth inning on Sunday, it was Lucas Luetge, not Chapman.
General manager Brian Cashman was asked on Monday if he thought Chapman could earn the closer’s role back. His answer was decidedly lukewarm.
“He was making the way back to -- prior to his last two outings, obviously – some really exciting stuff about what was coming out of his hand,” Cashman said. “And how he was . . . his mound presence, his body language, all that. And then his last two outings, obviously, haven’t been as good. It’s still a work in progress, but you know it’s still there. So, we’ll see.
“I feel like we have a new closer in Clay Holmes that’s certainly on the IL right now, but we expect to have him come back. But it’s certainly comforting that Boonie has the knowledge that whoever else is down there – you saw Trivino do what he did [Sunday] and he’s got some closing experience coming from Oakland – and we saw Effross do it in Boston. It’s just to know that you have a lot of different people you can turn to when necessary. [Wandy] Peralta, we’ve asked to do that before. It’s important to have that type of deep, battle-tested crew.”
“To answer your question, it’d be nice to get Chapman back to the position that that’s an opportunity as well. We’ll see. The last two outings, kind of reverted back to before the nice stretch he was on, so it makes you kind of pause a little bit and say, ‘OK, it’s still a work in progress.’ “
Chapman is 2-3 with a 4.70 ERA this season. Oddly, he has not officially blown a save; he’s 9-for-9. Chapman has walked 22 and struck out 35 in 30 2/3 innings.
“Chappy’s one of those guys that we’ve got to get rolling,” Boone said.
Chapman is a free agent after the season. Boone didn’t mention him when he was asked about his closing options in the wake of Effross’ injury. But he did mention Clarke Schmidt, who was called up Monday.
“You saw Trivino go 2 1/3,” Boone said. “So [Effross’ injury] affected that there. So we’ll just mix and match depending on – obviously, coming off the Toronto series where you have a ton of righthanded hitters -- the Mets are more lefthanded, switch-hitters. So we’ll just kind of however we can get to the finish line, we’ll kind of piece it together the best we can while we get some guys back.”
Holmes, who is eligible to come off the IL on Aug. 29, made the All-Star team as a closer. But, he, too was struggling mightily before he got hurt.