How Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase unlocked another level of excellence: 'Hitters look defeated before they go to the plate'

CLEVELAND — Like so many young Dominican hurlers, Emmanuel Clase’s favorite pitcher growing up was Pedro Martinez.

A skinny right-hander raised on the remote northern coast of the Caribbean island, Clase’s pro career began as a starting pitcher in the Padres organization, after he signed with San Diego for $125,000 a couple of months before his 17th birthday. For three seasons, Clase tried to sustain the dream of one day fronting a big-league rotation like his hero. He excelled in the Dominican Summer League but faltered once he arrived stateside. By the time the 2018 season arrived, Clase was 20 years old and had yet to pitch at a full-season minor-league affiliate. While his live arm remained tantalizing, the results had yet to follow, and his prospect status was waning.

But during extended spring training that year, Clase’s stuff started to pop on the Arizona backfields. His velocity, parked in the low-90s as a starter, began to creep toward triple digits in shorter stints, with an unusual amount of cutting action to his gloveside. In early May, Texas tabbed Clase as the player to be named later in a trade that sent catcher Brett Nicholas to the Padres. Clase’s new organization saw his supercharged arsenal as well-suited for a relief role, and his future started to come into focus.

Assigned to the Spokane affiliate in the short-season Northwest League in June, Clase swiftly settled into his new gig. Within two weeks, he ascended to the top of Spokane’s bullpen hierarchy, assuming a role he’d soon embody at the highest level of the sport: the closer.

“It was something I hadn’t done in the past,” Clase told Yahoo Sports through interpreter Agustin Rivero. “I started to get a taste of it … and I enjoyed it so much.”

Clase’s performance for Spokane — 0.64 ERA, 0.776 WHIP and Northwest League-leading 12 saves — was a stunningly accurate glimpse into the future. “That gave me confidence to close games,” he said of his earliest experiences handling the ninth inning.

And with his days as a starter in the rearview, Clase’s attention in emulation pivoted away from Martinez and toward a different Hall of Famer.

“After that, I started following a little more of Mariano Rivera.”

It was a natural name to land on. Even before he moved to the bullpen, Clase drew comparisons to Rivera due in large part to the movement of his fastball. “In reality, I didn't look at anybody else because as soon as I started pitching, a lot of people were comparing my pitch profiles to Mariano's,” Clase explained.

There was only one minor issue: “I have to confess,” he said, “at the time, I didn’t know who he was. So I had to look him up.”

A little bit of research went a long way: “Actually seeing his movement down the mound and what [his cutter] did, it was very similar to mine … after that, I realized that he was the only guy that I wanted to idolize.”

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As Clase transitioned into the closer role, Rivera — baseball’s greatest game-ender who also relied on a vicious cutter as his primary weapon — became an obvious model for the kind of pitcher he wanted to become. Of course, countless young relievers have looked to Rivera as the pinnacle of the position with hopes of one day achieving even a fraction of what the iconic Yankees closer did over the course of his legendary career. Far rarer are those who actually have the talent to follow in Rivera’s footsteps.

Clase, remarkably, has managed to do just that.

We’re still years away from finding out if Clase’s journey will feature the two defining characteristics of Rivera’s career: postseason excellence and otherworldly longevity. But in the early stages of his time as a big-league closer, Clase’s regular-season performance has not only matched that of Rivera’s but also arguably exceeded it.

Their numbers over their first four full seasons as closers are strikingly similar:

Clase (2021-2024):
287 games pitched
279 1/3 IP
1.68 ERA (248 ERA+)
2.34 FIP
0.884 WHIP
.487 OPS allowed
151 saves

Rivera (1997-2000):
252 games pitched
277 2/3 IP
2.14 ERA (217 ERA+)
3.14 FIP
1.059 WHIP
.563 OPS allowed
160 saves

It’s worth noting that Rivera’s breakout came in 1996, when he was the setup man for the World Series champion Yankees at the outset of the late-90s dynasty, and he was 26 years old when he collected his first career save on May 17, 1996. That’s the same age Clase is now — and he just became Cleveland’s all-time saves leader.

Parallels will be drawn between Clase and Rivera for years to come. But for now, Clase is the headlining act in baseball’s best bullpen, a unit that has fueled the first-place Guardians all season and represents the team’s biggest strength in its quest to topple the traditional American League powers come October. Somehow still one of the youngest pitchers at his position — only Mason Miller and Andrés Muñoz are younger among primary closers — Clase is in the midst of his best season yet and continues to deliver in ways only he can.

'He’s throwing one pitch, and it’s better than every pitch we got'

Cleveland pitching coach Carl Willis’ introduction to Clase came before the right-hander was a Guardian. Called up by Texas to make his MLB debut in August 2019, Clase’s second career appearance came at Progressive Field in the first game of a doubleheader.

“Clase came in, and obviously, you see the velocity. You see how hard it is,” Willis recalled. “Then you look up, and they’re all cutters! At 99-100 mph! Are you kidding me?”

That turned out to be a preview of what would eventually become a common sight in Cleveland: Clase emerging from the bullpen gate in center field and dispatching three batters in quick succession. Just a year after he was pitching at minor-league ballparks in the Pacific Northwest, a 21-year-old Clase was throwing 101 mph fireballs to Francisco Lindor.

Willis’ interest was sufficiently piqued: “I remember between games asking Julio [Rangel], who was their pitching coach at their time and used to be in our organization, ‘What do you got on this guy? That was ridiculous!’”

Four months later, Clase was traded again — this time to Cleveland alongside center fielder Delino DeShields Jr. for two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber. Though Kluber had been ineffective and injured for much of 2019, the decision to trade him was not taken lightly within the organization.

“It was tough to stomach losing Corey Kluber,” Willis said. “But when I found out it was for Clase, I’m like, ‘This guy's got something special.’ Now, what he could do with it — that was yet to be determined, right?

“But I think we've seen that it's pretty doggone good.”

When Clase arrived in Arizona for his first spring training with Cleveland in 2020, it didn’t take long for him to make an impression. Andre Knott, who has spent the past decade as the dugout reporter for Guardians broadcasts, recalls watching — or, more specifically, hearing — Clase’s introductory bullpen session that February. Among a row of pitchers easing into their earliest throws of the spring, one arm immediately stood out.

“They all got up there, and you didn't have to see — mile per hour, velo, nothing. There was just a pop,” Knott said of Clase’s unparalleled heater striking the catcher’s mitt. “Just one pop that was popping unlike any other pop.

“I remember a couple of our guys were like, ‘I don't even want to stand next to him during bullpens in spring training because my 92 [mph] looks like 82 [mph] … This kid we just got, he’s going up there, he’s throwing one pitch, and it’s better than every pitch we got.’”

Excitement built rapidly about the possibility of Clase making an immediate impact in Cleveland’s bullpen, even as a rookie. But before Clase appeared in any Cactus League action, he suffered an upper back strain that was expected to keep him on the shelf for multiple months. Then the season was delayed until July due to the pandemic, and Clase’s Cleveland debut was postponed further when it was announced in May that he was suspended 80 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. With the regular-season ultimately shortened to 60 games, Clase missed all of 2020, but his suspension was deemed complete come October, making him eligible to return in 2021 without further missed time.

His year away left some wondering what to expect upon his return, but Clase arrived at spring training fully confident in his ability to restore the enthusiasm he’d garnered the previous spring. Veteran lefty Brad Hand, who served as the club’s closer in 2019 and 2020, had departed in free agency, leaving ninth-inning duties up for grabs. And so, before he had thrown a pitch for his new team, Clase communicated his intentions of becoming Hand’s successor.

Initially, manager Terry Francona was turning to another ascendent young arm in James Karinchak for save opportunities, in addition to Clase. But by midsummer, Clase had emphatically seized the job as his and his alone. He led the team in saves with 24 and was sixth among relievers in fWAR.

What’s more, the ferocity of Clase’s cutter was unlike anything the league had ever seen, validating Willis’ reaction during his initial encounter in 2019. Before Clase debuted in the big leagues, there had been just a handful of pitches thrown 100 mph or harder that registered as a cutter since pitch tracking began in 2008. As a rookie in 2021, Clase threw 463 such pitches.

That he finished fifth in AL Rookie of the Year voting arguably undersold the caliber of the season he had: Among rookie relievers with at least 60 innings pitched, Clase’s 1.29 ERA was the third-lowest in MLB history, behind only 2006 Jonathan Papelbon (0.92) and 1974 Dale Murray (1.03).

His encore as a sophomore was even better. Clase led all MLB relievers in appearances (77), WHIP (0.73) and saves (42) for the AL Central champion Guardians and added four scoreless appearances in October before Cleveland’s ouster in the ALDS.

'The great ones are never satisfied'

The 2023 season brought a relative, if surprising, step back for Clase. An ERA that stayed well below 2.00 in his first two seasons ballooned above 3.00 in Year 3. His strikeout rate and ground ball rate dipped to career lows. He again led the league in saves with 44, but he also led in blown saves, with 12. The automatic runner on second base often gave him fits when he entered in extra innings; Clase allowed a 5.14 ERA and .794 OPS in extras, compared to a 3.02 ERA and .587 OPS in regulation. He also had difficulty adjusting to the pitch clock and struggled to control the running game, surrendering 10 stolen bases without preventing one.

On the whole, it’d be a stretch to call it a bad season. But Clase’s missteps certainly contributed to Cleveland’s collectively disappointing, 86-loss campaign, its worst finish since 2012. And based on the sky-high standard Clase had set for himself, it was an unacceptable outcome.

“You see him lead all of baseball in saves in back-to-back years … and yet, he got better this winter because he wasn't happy with what he did a year ago,” Guardians radio broadcaster Tom Hamilton said. “That's the separator between the really good and the great ones. Because the great ones are never satisfied.”

Indeed, Clase worked hard in the offseason to clean up some of his mechanics. He also started incorporating a slide-step into his delivery to deter ambitious baserunners. It seems to be working: He hasn’t been charged with a single pitch-timer violation and has allowed only one stolen base. (Though, as Hamilton mused, “it's hard to run on him when you aren't at first.”) Also, after amplifying his slider usage the past two years in an effort to get more whiffs, Clase has gone back to basics, throwing his trademark cutter a career-high 80% of the time.

“It comes down to confidence,” he explained. “I'm confident in executing my cutter a lot more, so that's why I can throw it in any count, any situation. The key is executing them so I can throw more cutters and keep the batters respecting the slider."

Clase’s cutter continues to overwhelm opponents, ranking as the fourth-most effective individual pitch in baseball by run value. Meanwhile, it has become far more difficult for opponents to anticipate when he will deploy his sharp slider at a ridiculous 91 mph. His usage this season has his two weapons performing brilliantly in tandem, with both pitches yielding better results than ever:

Opponents’ wOBA vs. Clase’s cutter:
2021: .284
2022: .241
2023: .307
2024: .208

Opponents’ wOBA vs. Clase’s slider:
2021: .162
2022: .167
2023: .211
2024: .142

In turn, scoring against Clase has become a roughly impossible task. He has allowed just five earned runs this season, all of which have come in games Cleveland still won. Clase’s 0.70 ERA in 59.1 IP currently ranks fourth-lowest all time among pitchers with at least 50 IP in a season, behind 2016 Zack Britton (0.54 in 67 IP), 2012 Fernando Rodney (0.60 in 74.2 IP) and 1990 Dennis Eckersley (0.61 in 73.1 IP).

The radio voice of Cleveland baseball since 1990, Hamilton has seen his fair share of relief aces over the years. He recalls the late-game excellence of José Mesa — third on the all-time Dominican saves list, a leaderboard Clase might one day top — whose outstanding 1995 campaign earned him both Cy Young and MVP votes. He still marvels at what lefty slinger Andrew Miller was able to do during his brief tenure in Cleveland. And he confidently puts Clase alongside the best of them.

“[Miller’s] couple of years here, it was like, ‘Well, that hitter has no chance.’ You kind of feel that way with Clase,” Hamilton said. “You see hitters look defeated before they go to the plate.”

'We’ve got firewood for the whole winter!'

As Royals skipper Matt Quatraro said last month in Cleveland: “You don't come into a series and look at the numbers very often and see a guy's OPS against is, like, .270 against lefties. I mean, that's just absurd.”

Quatraro was exaggerating only slightly: Opposing lefty batters have slashed .116/.139/.143 in 117 plate appearances against Clase this season. Among pitchers who have faced at least 100 left-handed hitters in a season, Clase’s .282 OPS allowed is the lowest in MLB history, edging out the likes of 2016 Clayton Kershaw (.309), 2012 Craig Kimbrel (.331) and 1999 Randy Johnson (.331) at the top of the leaderboard.

“There's not a whole lot you can say that he doesn't do well,” Quatraro said. “He gets righties and lefties out, puts the ball on the ground, there's very little damage, there's strikeouts, he can go multiple innings [when] he needs to. He clearly loves that moment. I think every team would love to have somebody like that. He's one of the game's best, if not the best.”

Clase’s strikeout totals aren’t quite what we’d expect from a modern relief ace, but his tremendous command of high-end velocity and his ability to suppress slugging combine to create an ultra-reliable recipe for run prevention. Clase’s 24.8% strikeout rate ranks 33rd among the 50 relievers with at least 200 innings pitched the past four seasons, but his ERA (1.68), WHIP (0.88) and fWAR (8.1) are all first, due in large part to a 61.3% ground-ball rate that ranks third, a 0.35 HR/9 that ranks first and a 4.6% walk rate that is the lowest among that sample of 50 arms.

In fact, Clase’s pinpoint control is an especially stark contrast to nearly every other noted flamethrower’s proclivity to issue free passes. Consider the average velocity of the other hardest-throwing hurlers’ primary fastballs compared to their walk rates since 2021:

Aroldis Chapman: 100.3 mph / 15.8% walk rate
Jose Alvarado: 98.9 mph / 13.3% walk rate
Gregory Soto: 98.5 mph / 12.0% walk rate
Camilo Doval: 98.1 mph / 11.0% walk rate
Ryan Helsley: 99.1 mph / 10.4% walk rate
Emmanuel Clase: 99.9 mph / 4.6% walk rate

Look at just 2024, and Clase again stands out, even with a few new ultra-hard throwers becoming late-inning spectacles across the league:

Justin Martinez: 100.1 mph / 12.0% walk rate
Ben Joyce: 102.1 mph / 9.9% walk rate
Mason Miller: 100.8 mph / 9.2% walk rate
Lucas Erceg: 98.6 mph / 6.9% walk rate
Jhoan Duran: 100.5 mph / 6.8% walk rate
Emmanuel Clase: 99.5 mph / 3.4% walk rate

“The easiest way to score off a reliever is when they're wild,” Guardians catcher Austin Hedges said. “And the thing is, [Clase] doesn't walk guys. You have to earn your way on. And guys don't slug him, so if you get a couple of hits, it's a couple of singles. So you're looking at [needing] at least three hits to score one run — which is really hard to do in this sport.”

For many pitchers, spending too much time in the strike zone can be a dangerous game plan against the best hitters in the world. But Clase’s stuff is so overpowering that opponents rarely make quality contact, even when swinging at pitches in locations that traditionally portend positive offensive outcomes.

“That first year, it blew us away how many splintered bats there were,” Knott said. “And I sit down there [in the photo well], and every broken bat has to go down there and get authenticated. And the guys are like, ‘We could start a fire because of this guy — we’ve got firewood for the whole winter!’”

Clase’s cutter-forward approach might not yield the most whiffs, but his avoidance of self-inflicted stress pays off spectacularly. What’s more, his elite strike-throwing and ability to induce early-count, weak contact also result in exceptional efficiency and, in turn, astonishing availability. Just three times this season has Clase needed more than 20 pitches to complete a save. Of his 151 saves the past four seasons, 105 have been recorded with 15 pitches or fewer.

That he is so rarely taxed heavily in an individual outing enables him to stay fresh for multiple outings over condensed periods of time. To wit, no pitcher has pitched on back-to-back days more frequently than Clase since 2021, with his unrivaled durability on full display last month, when he became the first pitcher since Edwin Diaz in 2018 to record a save on four consecutive days.

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt readily acknowledges the luxury of having a guy such as Clase to turn to so frequently in late-and-close situations, especially as a first-time skipper.

“It's incredible to watch him work and know that when you have a lead in the ninth and you give him the ball, you feel pretty good about it, and your heart rate is probably a little lower than it might be otherwise,” he said. “The stability that he brings every day … I definitely don't take it for granted.”

Since he last faltered way back on May 19 (in a game Cleveland still won), Clase has converted 28 consecutive save opportunities. His 93.2% save percentage in 2024 is the best of his career, and the Guardians are 57-7 in games in which he pitched.

“He's so much more dominant than he's ever been,” Hamilton said. “We're so lucky in this game when we're seeing special years. And you never know if you're going to see a special year like this again, because how do you replicate this?

“This was Dennis Eckersley, in some of his historic years with Oakland. Mariano Rivera with the Yankees, when nobody had a chance. That's the way it is with Emmanuel Clase.”

Perhaps on his way to rewriting the record books even further, Clase has his sights set on something bigger than his own accolades. He remains one of the most crucial cogs for Cleveland as it tries to fend off Kansas City and Minnesota for the AL Central title. This weekend’s series at Dodger Stadium could provide a substantial stage for him to shine and help his team’s chances.

Because as satisfying as it has been to rack up saves in the regular season, Clase knows there are far more important games ahead. For a pitcher who has long admired Rivera, it’s no secret which those are: the ones in October, not September.

So far, though, this season has been about Clase’s unfettered pursuit of an even higher level of excellence, despite all he’d already accomplished. Responding to a 2023 season that would’ve been a success for many but that he deemed unequivocally subpar, Clase has delivered one of the best stretches we’ve ever seen from a closing pitcher. The shakiness he exhibited a year ago is gone. Now, the final frame with a Guardians lead and Clase on the mound has become almost a formality, rather than any sort of opportunity for drama.

As Hamilton put it: "When he's going to come in the ninth, then in the bottom of the eighth, after the inning's over, I can call my wife and say, ‘I'll see you in a half-hour, honey.’

“Because I know it's over.”