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'I'm human': Guardians, closer Emmanuel Clase working on slider, sinker usage in 2025
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- 'I'm human': Guardians, closer Emmanuel Clase working on slider, sinker usage in 2025
CLEVELAND — "Superman" was filmed last summer around downtown Cleveland and in Progressive Field . Last October, Cleveland fans watched their own Superman turn human in that same ballpark .
Then again, superhuman standards aren't easy to uphold for very long. Emmanuel Clase had that task in the playoffs last year in an effort to follow up his other-worldly regular season .
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Instead, the history-making dominance faded just enough, and the New York Yankees ended Clase's dream year and the Guardians' playoff run just a few games short of the World Series.
And to begin 2025, Clase has largely looked, well, human.
After allowing five earned runs in 74 1/3 innings last year — one of the best seasons by a reliever in baseball history — Clase already has been tagged for more earned runs this season (six runs in seven innings). The Guardians aren't yet finished with their first homestand, and he's already given up more than a third of the hits (39 last year, 14 this season).
A repeat of last season was virtually impossible. But when a pitcher becomes as automatic as Clase was for the 2024 regular season, it eventually becomes an almost unfair expectation.
Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase reacts after giving up a ninth-inning hit against the Kansas City Royals, April 12, 2025, in Cleveland.
"I was thinking that a couple of days ago myself, I'm like, as a reminder, I'm human," Clase said through a team translator. "I can make mistakes, not get the results I want. But I think what really matters is the support I get from my teammates, from my friends. … The important part is that I feel good as long as I feel good with my body, that I know I can do the work I'm capable of doing."
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The level of concern with Clase's start to the season within the Guardians' clubhouse can be considered low given the small sample size, but that might change soon if these shaky innings continue. Clase's velocity on his military-grade cutter is down from 99.5 mph to 99, though it's also early in the season, and the Guardians have played several games in frosty temperatures.
"I just see the league having a good plan against him. He's been the best pitcher in the world for the first however many years of his career," said catcher Austin Hedges . "When you play the Guardians, every team's got a hitters' game plan against opposing pitchers and you better have a good game plan against him, otherwise he's just going to roll right through you."
Emmanuel Clase throwing his slider more in 2025
In 2024, Clase's cutter was so dominant that it didn't require too much sequencing with his slider. Eventually, though, the Guardians feel the time will come — perhaps it already has — that Clase's slider will need to be a more effective weapon.
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Clase threw his cutter 77% of the time last year. That rate is down to 66% this season , with a corresponding 11% jump in his slider usage.
"I think teams probably got sick and tired of him making it look so easy, and the league's been making some adjustments and now it's time for us to make an adjustment," Hedges said. "When you go out and put up a 0.61 ERA for a season, the league's going to do something about it."
Clase noted April 12 that they're working on adding more depth to his slider so that the pitch profile is more differentiated from the cutter. The Guardians have a pitch-mix rate they'd like Clase to find.
"Going back a couple of years ago, we fell upon the equation of a certain percentage of sliders really being beneficial to him, to get guys off of the hard stuff," said pitching coach Carl Willis . "We kind of fell back into that trap of [only hard pitches], particularly in early counts, and hitters are coming up being super aggressive because they know he's a strike thrower. So if we can just slow them down [with the slider], the [cutter] plays better."
Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase throws in the ninth against the Chicago White Sox, April 9, 2025, in Cleveland.
Emmanuel Clase working on a sinker
Clase is also continuing his work on a sinker that he can actually use up in the zone to change hitters' eye levels a bit more. He's only thrown it one or twice when needed in an outing, but when it's required, it's becoming one more thing hitters have to think about.
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"It's just such a different shape that hitters have to work to get to that cutter, and now all of a sudden when the ball's not cutting, their swing's not on plane," Willis said. "Plus I think we all feel one thing that would help as he continues to progress in his career is the ability to elevate the baseball. That pitch, seemingly he can do that with, and I think that would be a big help."
The Guardians might not be able to count on a superhuman run from Clase like he had in 2024 again. But they're hoping a few adjustments with his slider and sinker can allow him to effectively keep wearing a superhero's cape for a little longer as one of baseball's elite weapons out of the bullpen.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase throwing slider, sinker more
