Pirates A to Z: After a season lost to injury, Clay Holmes hopes to finally stay healthy

During the offseason, the Tribune-Review will offer Pirates A to Z, an alphabetical player-by-player look at the 40-man roster, from outfielder Anthony Alford to pitcher Trevor Williams.

Clay Holmes

Position: Pitcher

Throws: Right

Age: 27

Height: 6-foot-5

Weight: 230 pounds

2020 MLB statistics: 0-0, 0.00 ERA/1.500 WHIP, allowing two hits and striking out one in 11/3 innings in one game.

Contract: Not yet eligible for arbitration.

Acquired: Drafted by the Pirates in the ninth round in 2011.

This past season: Out of options, Holmes was hoping to show enough stability to have staying power in the Pirates’ bullpen.

He lasted only one game.

His spring training debut was a good sign, as Holmes threw a scoreless fifth inning against the top of the Minnesota Twins’ order, flashing a 96 mph fastball and throwing strikes on six of seven pitches.

“When Clay’s like that, it’s really hard to hit him,” Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings said. “He’s got the stuff. He’s nasty.”

What Holmes hasn’t had is good health. His spring ended with a fractured right foot, and he returned to pitch 1 1/3 innings against the St. Louis Cardinals in the season opener. But Holmes was placed on the injured list July 28 with a right forearm strain and later was shut down for the remainder of the 60-game season.

“We had a chance to salvage their season,” Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said of Holmes and Michael Feliz, who suffered a similar injury. “It’s just timing. Timing and location of the body part. … Our goal, our vision as a performance team is short and long-term, our vision is short and long-term health with these guys, and when we collaboratively got together from a medical perspective with performance team, with the coaching staff to front office, the decision was made out of the best interest of the player.”

After taking a Nelson Cruz grounder off his right foot, Holmes was supposed to sidelined for up to six weeks. When baseball shut down, Holmes stayed in Bradenton and worked with Pirates bullpen coach Justin Meccage on his mechanics while rehabilitating.

“Maybe a week in, I started doing some throwing just on my knees, kind of without my feet,” Holmes said. “Then when I was able to put some pressure on my foot, I was doing some throwing in a boot. Just enough to keep my arm in shape, so on the back end it didn’t take as long coming back.”

Holmes specifically focused on his back heel connection, with his right foot from the rubber to help the timing of his delivery and allow him to feel “a lot more natural and athletic.”

“I think that’s one of the keys to developing a lot more consistency, so it’s something I put a lot of emphasis on going into the spring,” Holmes said. “Then with the little setback with the foot, coming back I was able to put even more of an emphasis on it — kind of because I had to. Just the heel connection with my back foot, and not rotating early, it just allows for better timing and sequencing of the events within my delivery, which ultimately creates more consistency with the release point out front.”

So, it was a lost season for Holmes, who was 1-2 with a 5.58 ERA and 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings in 50 innings over 35 games in 2019. The worst part was that he believed his sinker “felt the best it’s felt maybe ever, but a long time.”

The future: The Pirates have emphasized the need for arms, especially in the bullpen after Keone Kela and Derek Holland elected free agency, Nick Tropeano (Mets) and Brandon Waddell (Twins) were claimed off waivers and Dovydas Neverauskas was designated for assignment.

First, Holmes has to stay healthy. Then he has to prove that he can pitch with consistency. Holmes still has a chance to become a valuable reliever for the Pirates but time is running out.

Check out the entire Pirates A to Z series here.