Clay Holmes is the Yankees best reliever right now

BALTIMORE — Conveniently, when he got the word that he had been traded last summer, Clay Holmes was at a Target in Pittsburgh with his wife picking up odds and ends. The call came as they were standing at the checkout.

“So, I turned around and went and found a razor,” Holmes said with a laugh. “I wanted to make sure I was ready.”

Since coming over to the Bombers right before last season’s trade deadline, Holmes has been ready for anything the Yankees have asked of him. He’s pitched his way into higher leverage situations and very likely will be closing games as this season goes on.

“He’s throwing a bowling ball out there,” one American League scout said. “I will admit it, my [scouting report] on him from the Pirates did not see this happening. They’ve eliminated his four-seam fastball and that sinker is just a heavy bowling ball.”

Since being acquired from the Pirates, Holmes has unlocked something that has made him one of the most effective relievers the Yankees have these days. By eliminating the four-seam fastball, Holmes can focus on the sinker, slider and occasionally a curveball.

The Yankees focused him more on his sinker and showed him how to use it more effectively. They showed him how he was missing low with the pitch or off the inside corner and how he could effectively use it higher in the zone and “miss” his spots more effectively.

It has worked.

That has given him an outrageous ground ball percentage of 81.8% and a just over 2% flyball rate. Just for comparison, that is better than Zack Britton posted in his All-Star seasons.

“I tried using the [four-seam] a little bit when I first got to the bullpen and scrapped that pretty quickly. I knew my sinker was my better fastball. So it’s hard to really come out of the bullpen and you are only seeing a guy one time and you don’t want to get beat on something that’s not your best pitch,” Holmes said. “So that was kind of my thought process behind that.”

Holmes has the lowest walk rate (3.1) and the second highest strikeout rate (26.6) of his career.

This comes as Aroldis Chapman is struggling when the Yankees are already looking to use different relievers in the ninth inning.

On Saturday night, Chapman gave up the walk-off single — after walking a batter — in the Yankees’ only loss in this four-game series. While his velocity is still among the tops in baseball, Chapman’s average fastball velocity is down almost two mph.

His command has been an issue the last few years. In 11.1 innings pitched this season, he has already walked nine batters. He’s among the bottom 3% in walks per nine innings in the majors right now. His hard-hit percentage is the highest since 2015, when Statcast began recording it.

The Yankees sat down with Chapman, 34, this spring and talked to him about being used in different, high-leverage positions. That meant they would need other relievers to step up and close at times.

“[Jonathan Loaisiga] can be in there. We’ve seen [Chad Green] in there. It kind of depends where we’re at, what team we’re facing, where we are in their order and what they have on the bench,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But today if we’re coming back around to the top of their order with those good right-hand hitters, and it was that spot I was gonna go with Clay.”

Right now, he’s their best option.

Loaisiga is pitching to a 5.93 ERA with eight walks and nine earned runs over 13.2 innings pitched. He’s given up three home runs. Green has been better with a 3.38 ERA in 13.1 innings pitched over 12 appearances. He has also struggled a bit with the walks, issuing five.

And Holmes has been open to whatever the Yankees have asked of him. The last time the Yankees were in Baltimore, Holmes got his first major league save and there will likely be more because he’s effective and he treats every outing the same.

“It’s definitely encouraging to earn the trust of Boonie and be able to put the team in a position to win,” Holmes said. “I try to treat everything the same and I’m looking to go put up zeroes whatever inning that it is that helps the team. This is kind of what I expected of myself and kind of what I’m looking to do doesn’t really change based on the situations.”