PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — With all due respect to Clay Holmes, the New York Mets did not expect to use a pitcher who hasn’t made a Major League start since 2018 in their regular season opener on Thursday in Houston. The Mets’ pitching staff isn’t where they expected it to be when spring training opened six weeks ago.
Thus, they’re relying on the former New York Yankees’ closer. But when asked about it, Holmes says the decision might not be as weird as it appears. He’s had a terrific spring, allowing only two earned runs and striking out 19 in 23 1/3 innings over five starts.
“There’s two sides to that,” he said in a clubhouse interview Monday at Clover Park before the Mets closed their spring schedule against the Yankees. “If you look at my whole career since I was drafted, I’ve still done a lot of starting, granted most of it in the minor leagues. It’s just working up a different routine. Did I expect this? A year ago, no.”
The Mets spent all kinds of money this offseason, signing Juan Soto, Holmes and Frankie Montas, and re-signing Pete Alonso, Jesse Winker and Sean Manaea. They came into the season with a payroll for luxury tax purposes of $318.8 million, second in Major League Baseball and well behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But because of spring injuries to Manaea and Montas, the rotation is short to say the least.
Their five projected starters—Holmes, Tylor Megill, David Peterson, Griffin Canning and Kodai Senga—are earning a combined $38.7 million this season, which is $12.3 million less than the $51 million Soto alone is making this season. Holmes, who signed a three-year, $38 million contract, is making $12.7 million of that combined $38.7 million.
This all begs the question why owner Steven Cohen would pay all this money to sign Soto without putting together a more representative starting pitching staff.
Holmes said the staff looks better to those on the inside than the outside.
“Everyone’s depth gets tested sometime during the season,” Holmes said. “Even beyond the one through five, our depth has been impressive. People have been throwing the ball pretty well here. We have a lot of guys to get outs.”
Pitching depth is the main problem heading into the season for most teams not named the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Yanks lost Gerrit Cole to Tommy John surgery and Luis Gil to a lat injury during spring training. The Tampa Bay Rays lost opening day starter Shane McClanahan, returning from Tommy John surgery, on Saturday when he came out of the game early because of nerve irritation in his left triceps.
The Mets are struggling similarly. New York had a patchwork rotation last year when it took the Dodgers to the sixth game of the National League Championship Series. The Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series with three healthy starters, but they retooled during the offseason by signing Blake Snell and Rōki Sasaki.
The Mets didn’t retool; in fact, they lost Luis Severino and Jose Quintana from last year’s rotation. That’s 21 wins they must account for. Manaea had another 12.
Manaea, who has a right oblique strain, is a month away. The often-injured Montas is expected to miss at least the first half of the season with his own right lat strain.
Holmes was bounced as closer by the Yankees last year after blowing 13 saves and was relegated to a setup role, replaced by Luke Weaver. But he somehow found a home as a free agent moving from the Bronx to Queens, preceding the Soto signing for 15 years, $765 million last December by two days.
The answer to Holmes’ bullpen woes seems to be not only putting him in he rotation, but starting him on opening day. Holmes has made 311 appearances in his career since coming up with Pittsburgh in 2018, 307 in relief. But opening day starter? That wasn’t on the agenda when camp opened.
“No, I’m not going to sit here predicting I was going to be saying that,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Monday morning. “But now watching him play and going about his business, he earned it.”
Holmes said he’s where he needs to be, built up now to 90 pitches. He’ll find it different pitching deeper into games rather than coming out of the pen for quick hits. Everyone will get a good first look at this experiment on Thursday.
“We’ll see how it works out,” he said.
