Emmanuel Clase’s path to become MLB’s best closer filled with ups and downs

Emmanuel Clase had such an amazing season in 2024 that he was a finalist for the American League Cy Young. How he got there though is a great story.

At 17 years old, Clase was signed by the San Diego Padres for $125K, then traded three years later to the Rangers in the Brett Nicholas trade, after moving from a starter to a reliever role in his second professional season. Clase rose from High-A to open the 2019 season to debuting for Texas in August, and flashing a cutter with the highest average mph in MLB at just a hair under 100 mph, putting up a 2.31 ERA in 23.1 innings for his first season. Following the 2019 season, Cleveland traded Corey Kluber to the Texas Rangers for Delino DeShields and Emmanuel Clase, putting the 22-year old in the Guardians’ organization.

There was a lot of consternation at the time among Guardians fans. Myself, I remember saying, “They must have a lot of doubts about Corey Kluber and they must think a LOT of Clase, because even a great reliever might take three seasons to accrue the value of a full season of even a somewhat diminished Kluber.” Because I doubted Kluber’s health, I was fine with the trade; otherwise, I might have joined the chorus of those claiming the Guardians had got pennies on the dollar.

Those protests only got louder when Clase received a suspension for an anabolic steroid in the spring of 2020. You may or may not remember this because... well... we all had a LOT going on in the spring of 2020. It’s probably instructive to go back and read Zack Meisel’s excellent piece for the Athletic about Clase and his beginnings. Suffice it to say that, anywhere you look, it’s clear Clase was a rubber-armed, strong kid from the Dominican Republic who really wanted to make the majors. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad actors preying upon young men with baseball talent, and one can imagine one such encounter resulting in Clase’s decision to take a steroid. To his credit, he has, obviously, had no other steroid usage in his record while his performance has only improved. But, between DeShields putting up 0.1 Wins Above Replacement in 2020 season and Clase spending the whole season suspended, the early returns for the Kluber trade were close to nil.

All of that is distant memory in Cleveland now, as, from 2021-2024, Clase has become the Guardians’ franchise’s all-time saves leader with 157 saves, putting up a 1.62 ERA and a 8.74/1.62 K/BB per nine innings. In that time period, he leads all MLB pitchers who have thrown at least 250 innings in ERA, and all MLB pitchers in ERA- and FIP-. He’s fourth in ground ball rate, second lowest in hard-hit rate, and has allowed the fewest home-runs-per-fly-balls in the majors. His cutter and slider combination seems impossible for major league hitters to square up in most of his appearances, and, like any good closer, he wants the ball every day and in any difficult situation. Since coming to Cleveland, Clase is first among relievers and fifth among all baseball pitchers in Win Probability Added at 9.07 wins. He gets the ball in big spots and gets it done.

One of the most special things in watching Emmanuel Clase is how quickly he will dispose of the opposition. Among pitchers who have thrown at least 250 innings over the last four years, Clase has thrown the second fewest pitches in that time among relievers (just behind Raisel Iglesias, who has thrown around 30 fewer innings than Clase). His ability to get weak contact has enabled his team to deploy the most effective pitching weapon in baseball in more games than any other pitcher from 2021-2024 in 297 games. When Clase can get warm quickly and throw an inning of 9-12 pitches, it allows his team to bring him out for three or even four games in a row if need be.

In Cleveland, Clase’s biggest change has been the development of pinpoint control. At the conclusion of the 2021 season, Clase was giving up a solid 2.13 walks per nine. Over the past three seasons, that number shrunk to 1.47 walks per nine. This is huge in limiting the amount of damage Clase can theoretically sustain in a given outing; sometimes, weakly hit balls will find outfield grass but because Clase will not surrender free baserunners, he will find his way to work around the lucky punches other teams land. Teams facing the hard throwing 26-year old today step to the plate knowing that strikes are coming and they’re not going to be able to lay off pitches. They need to swing, because Clase is pumping those cutters in the zone no matter what.

Clase had a dream season for the Guardians in 2024, putting up an 0.61 ERA with 47 saves. He hit some significant bumps in the road in the playoffs, however, giving up a key home run to Kerry Carpenter against the Tigers, and key homers to Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton in game three of the ALCS. He also had one of his rare weakly-hit batted-ball collapses in game four of the ALCS, aided by a Brayan Rocchio error. It was strange to see Clase look mortal in the playoffs. Whether the issues were mechanical, overuse, pitch-selection or some kind of scouting failure, I don’t see any reason to believe that Clase found the moment of the playoffs too big for him. As dominant as he is, he still doesn’t have the strikeout ability to overcome making a mistake or two in the wrong spot. Hitters know that Clase is going to throw them a cutter 75% of the time, so, if they guess location correctly, miracles can happen. And, that’s what, sadly for Guardians fans, we saw take place during a disappointing playoffs for the Cleveland closer. I have no concerns, personally, that any sort of lingering hangover effect will take place for Clase in 2025.

Prior to 2022, the Guardians wisely signed Clase to a five year contract worth $18.5 million, including two club options for 2027 and 2028 at $10 million per season. They owe the best closer in MLB only $11.3 million over the next two years, making Clase’s contract one of the best values in the sport. This will inevitably lead to trade speculation, as I’m sure a variety of teams will call Cleveland looking to see if the team is willing to deal the fairly volatile asset of a reliever for something more stable in value, given the organization’s seemingly endless ability to churn out good relief pitching. I doubt we’ll see any activity on that front until after the 2026 season, myself, as I suspect no team is going to offer the kind of value in return that Cleveland currently has in Clase. Instead, the Guardians will likely encourage Clase this offseason to continue to work on a sinker he flashed occasionally in the 2024 season. If the closer can develop that into a reliable pitch, he will have something to break north-south to go along with his horizontally breaking slider and cutter. If that can happen, Clase could find a way to increase his ability to miss bats and become even more valuable in the future - a scary thought for his opponents and enticing for Guardians fans dreaming of a Clase redemption tour in the 2025 American League playoffs.

There is a reason these past two seasons have seen American League All-Star team managers have put Emmanuel Clase in to close out the All-Star game. And, there’s a reason that All-Star catcher and franchise-legend Salvador Perez mentioned “catching Clase” as what he was most looking forward to doing in the All-Star game.

And, finally, there’s a reason that Guardians fans over the past four years have been able to comfortably assume a game is over once their team has the lead in the ninth inning. It’s because Emmanuel Clase, the kid from Rio San Juan, Domincan Republic, is one of the most dominant late-inning forces we have seen in baseball history. We will all be telling our children and grandchildren about watching him pitch in a Cleveland uniform for years to come.