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The New York Yankees‘ bullpen, after posting the lowest ERA in the majors in 2023, is a very different group this season. Key players departed over the winter, replaced by relatively obscure newcomers, while others are out early with injuries. A decline would’ve made sense.

But the Yankees’ relief corps is again among the best in the sport, with the second-highest Win Probability Added and second-best ERA in the majors. The anchor is the most prominent holdover: Clay Holmes, the only qualified reliever yet to surrender an earned run in 2024.

With the Yankees off to a 27-15 start, fueled in part by their standout bullpen, Holmes just might be the best closer in baseball.

“STUD — all capital letters there,” Yankees reliever Luke Weaver said.

Holmes, in his second full season as New York’s closer, has registered 21 strikeouts with three walks in 17⅓ innings and leads the American League with 12 saves. And ask anybody in the Yankees’ clubhouse: Holmes’ performance in Baltimore earlier this month is still a talker.

The Yankees, six outs from victory, were nursing a 2-0 lead after falling to the Orioles in the first two games of the four-game series. A third straight loss to their chief competition for the American League East would be as backbreaking as it gets on May 1. The first two Orioles reached base in the bottom of the frame. Moments later, with one out and the top of the Orioles’ order looming, Yankees manager Aaron Boone summoned Holmes for a five-out save. What followed was an electric, eye-popping performance.

Holmes struck out Gunnar Henderson, named the American League Player of the Month two days later, with a pair of sharp sliders and a 97 mph sinker. He then whiffed Adley Rutschman, the Orioles’ All-Star catcher, on two hard sinkers over the plate, followed by a slider that nearly dropped Rutschman to a knee. Crisis averted. Holmes then kept the middle of the Orioles’ explosive lineup scoreless in the ninth to secure the victory.

“That’s about as nasty as it gets,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said after watching the display. “When you’re throwing 97 mph bowling balls with a slider, it’s going to be tough to score against.”

Veteran catcher Jose Trevino was around for Holmes’ All-Star season in 2022. He has caught some of Holmes’ most dominant outings. But that was the best he has ever seen from the closer.

“And I told him that,” Trevino said.

Now in his fourth season with the Yankees, Holmes has the second-highest ERA+ ever for a Yankees reliever with at least 160 appearances — behind only Mariano Rivera. He was an All-Star in 2022, snatching the closer job from Aroldis Chapman midseason. He was effective again in 2023, his first full season in the role, with a 152 ERA+ in 66 appearances.

But he has been even better in 2024. And with Holmes starring at the back end, the Yankees’ bullpen boasts a 2.69 ERA, trailing only the Cleveland Guardians, even after a near meltdown Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays. All this despite the significant year-over-year turnover.

Michael King, the Yankees’ shutdown multi-inning weapon last season, was traded as part of the package for Juan Soto. Wandy Peralta, their best left-hander in 2023, is also in San Diego, after signing a four-year deal with the Padres in free agency. The hard-throwing Jonathan Loáisiga underwent season-ending elbow surgery after three appearances last month. Tommy Kahnle, currently on a minor league rehab assignment, has yet to throw a pitch in the majors this year.

The Yankees acquired left-handers Caleb Ferguson and Victor González from the Dodgers during the offseason. They signed Dennis Santana, on his fourth team in four years, to a minor league deal. They converted Weaver, a 30-year-old former first-round pick, from starter to reliever.

Ian Hamilton, one of the few relievers from 2023 still on the roster, had allowed eight earned runs in 15 appearances over three seasons when he signed with the Yankees before the start of last season. The 28-year-old right-hander was a revelation, recording a 2.64 ERA with 69 strikeouts in 39 games.

“There’s a lot of reassurance, of showing what we do can get people out all the time,” Hamilton said of the Yankees’ coaching staff. “It sounds ridiculous, but then [there’s] the Yankee Effect. When you’re in the bullpen here, you just want to perform, and you want to show off for the Yankees. It doesn’t make it easy, but that motivation is like always here. There’s always that drive.”

Boone credited the Yankees’ front office for its ability to identify undervalued arms and maximize their abilities. The expertise has produced bullpens that have finished in the top five in ERA over the past three seasons. Nobody embodies the organization’s knack for bullpen construction better than Holmes.

The Yankees acquired the 6-foot-5 right-hander from the Pittsburgh Pirates in July 2021 for infielders Diego Castillo and Hoy Park. Holmes had a 4.93 ERA in 42 innings that season at the time of the trade. He owned a 5.57 career ERA over parts of four seasons. Nothing indicated dominance was around the corner.

“We feel like he’s going to be a guy that is already very tough on righties,” Boone said at the time, “but we feel like he has the stuff and the repertoire to go to another place.”

The Yankees had Holmes ditch his curveball for a sweeper to complement his sinker and gyro slider. The sweeper, a slider with a bigger break, plays better against right-handed hitters. The gyro slider, a harder offering, is more effective against lefties. He allowed just five runs in 25 outings to close the regular season.

Three years later, Holmes has yet to give up a hit on either of his sliders while posting the second-highest ground ball rate (71.1%) among qualified relievers behind a devastating sinker averaging 96.3 mph. He has a 61.5% whiff rate on the 34 sweepers he has thrown — all to righties — with six strikeouts. His gyro slider ranks as the best slider in the majors, according to the stat Run Value/100 Pitches.

“A lot of it for me is nailing my direction,” Holmes said. “I’m able to just move down the mound faster and I just think it helps my body move a little better. Just kind of knowing my lanes, the direction I need to get going. It’s a product of me just moving down the mound better. It frees up my arm. The stuff moves from that.”

Holmes’ only blemish so far this season came after shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s error on a routine play led to three unearned runs in the 10th inning of a win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 3. On Friday, the Rays nearly ended his scoreless innings streak, but he escaped a bases-loaded jam with his third strikeout of the inning, closing out a 2-0 win and keeping his 0.00 ERA.

“Clay’s pretty much the same person every day: Calm,” Hamilton said. “He’s ready to get put in the game pretty much any day. However many times it takes.”

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Stanton won’t blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

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Stanton won't blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.

Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.

“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”

Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”

He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.

“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”

While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.

Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells were among the Yankees who used torpedo bats during their season-opening sweep of the Brewers.

Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.

Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.

“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”

Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.

“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.

“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”

As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.

“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”

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Rangers’ Eovaldi gets season’s 1st complete game

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Rangers' Eovaldi gets season's 1st complete game

CINCINNATI — Nathan Eovaldi pitched a four-hitter for the majors’ first complete game of the season, and the Texas Rangers blanked the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 on Tuesday night.

Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.

It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.

“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”

In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.

“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”

The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.

“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”

Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.

“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”

Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.

The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: USC flips Ducks’ Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

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Source: USC flips Ducks' Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.

Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.

Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).

The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.

Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.

Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.

Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.

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