{"id":121255,"date":"2026-05-04T12:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=121255"},"modified":"2026-05-04T12:21:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:21:00","slug":"clay-holmes-breakout-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/04\/clay-holmes-breakout-mets\/","title":{"rendered":"Clay Holmes\u2019 Remarkable Rise to Ace Status Is Saving the Mets\u2019 2026 Rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"

They always say \u2014 another man\u2019s trash is another man\u2019s treasure. Clay Holmes<\/a> has bounced around the pitching world throughout his nine-year career. Whether as a starting pitcher, a closer, or a setup option constantly dogged by all, Holmes has seen it all. The Mets added the former Yankee in 2023, facing criticism for signing<\/a> Holmes to a three-year, $38 million contract. The criticism wasn\u2019t just about signing Holmes; it was that David Stearns had a vision to turn Holmes into a starting pitcher.<\/p>\n

Holmes saw action as a starter during his first MLB season, appearing in four starts and holding a 7.80 ERA while surrendering a .323 batting average to opponents. The right-hander then found himself in a bullpen role, serving as a depth option before being traded to the Yankees in 2021. Instantly, Holmes flourished in the Bronx, serving as the Yankees\u2019 closer and totaling 74 saves in three seasons, along with a 2.69 ERA over 217 IP.<\/p>\n

However, even after three strong seasons as a closer, Yankees fans wanted their All-Star gone. Holmes blew 13 saves in 2024, leading the majors, especially during the second half of the season, when he consistently failed to close out games. The Mets’ signing Holmes as a starter was viewed as comical, adding a pitcher who struggled to finish games consistently.<\/p>\n

To everyone\u2019s surprise, Holmes proved during his first season as a full-time starter that he could hold his own as a backend starter, giving the Mets solid innings in a rotation that desperately needed them. The biggest concern for Holmes was how he would look through the middle portion of the season. Having a pitcher who hadn\u2019t eclipsed 20 starts in his career was viewed as a problem, but that concern was quickly quieted. Holmes started 31 games, totaling 165 innings with a solid 3.53 ERA.<\/p>\n

The leap Holmes took into the 2026 season was unexpected \u2014 something the Mets needed badly.<\/p>\n

The legend of Clay Holmes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Mets watched from the sidelines as Seth Lugo<\/a> turned into an ace starter with the Royals. Lugo had always wanted to start in New York, but served as the team\u2019s reliable long-relief and setup option. With the Royals, Lugo has a 3.39 ERA through 66 starts, along with one All-Star appearance after a very strong campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, unlike Lugo, Holmes has leaped into \u201cace\u201d territory. The 33-year-old made several changes this offseason, moving closer to the first-base side of the rubber to give his sinker more horizontal bite. Holmes also began shifting his position on the rubber from pitch to pitch to increase deception.<\/p>\n

Another big improvement in his starts has been consistency: he has completed at least five innings and allowed two or fewer earned runs in every start so far this season. His stats to start the 2026 season are among the best, with a 1.69 ERA through 42 innings, along with 31 strikeouts and a 0.984 WHIP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d said<\/a> manager Carlos Mendoza about his right-hander\u2019s performance against the Angels yesterday. \u201cWe saw it again today. That first inning was a battle after the first couple of guys got on, and he\u2019s up to like 30-something pitches, [but] before you know it, he\u2019s able to get to those middle innings.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 5\u20131 win, Holmes went 6.2 innings, allowing one run on four hits and three walks.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Mets have had very few things go right. Clay Holmes, however, is the exact opposite. People are quick to say David Stearns hasn\u2019t delivered anything positive to the roster. Still, Holmes is the perfect example of what Stearns does best: turning what people consider trash into treasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They always say \u2014 another man\u2019s trash is another man\u2019s treasure. Clay Holmes has bounced around the pitching world throughout his nine-year career. Whether as a starting pitcher, a closer, or a setup option constantly dogged by all, Holmes has seen it all. The Mets added the former Yankee in 2023, facing criticism for signing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5548,"featured_media":121258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[5566,1160,165],"class_list":["post-121255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","tag-clay-holmes","tag-david-stearns","tag-seth-lugo"],"modified_by":"Jason Petrucci","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121255"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121262,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121255\/revisions\/121262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}