Clay Holmes Continues Spring Scoreless Streak

Clay Holmes is adding on to his impressive beginning to spring. Sunday afternoon, the newest Met and reliever-turned-starter continued his progression, throwing 67 pitches in three 2/3 innings. He extended his scoreless streak and allowed just one hit on eight strikeouts against the helpless Nationals.

Holmes’s outing was typical, with him using his sinker 45% of the time. He kept his velocity up with that pitch despite pushing himself to new lengths, pitch count-wise. Averaging 95.4 mph on the sinker, he tacked on two four-seam fastballs at 95.5 and 95.2 mph.

He’s continued to keep batters on their toes, compiling 13 swings and misses Sunday. While his sinker was his most-used pitch Sunday, Holmes notched a 75% whiff percentage on his cutter and a 40% whiff percentage on his sweeper. It was tied for second-most in all spring training games with the Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi after the Guardians’ Gavin Williams‘ 16 swings and misses.

The righty also showed off his new “kick” changeup, throwing it 16 times, including three that resulted in swinging strikeouts. Hitters whiffed on the pitch six times. That pitch especially will help his continued transition to a starting pitcher, particularly against left-handed hitters.

Clay Holmes, Back-to-Back Kick Changes. ???? pic.twitter.com/HvTG0biiCM

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 9, 2025

Holmes formed a successful battery with Jakson Reetz Sunday afternoon. Reetz’s position on the 2025 Mets may be more important than ever after it was announced on Sunday that Francisco Alvarez broke his left hamate bone and will miss six to eight weeks.

The 31-year-old Holmes has only given up two hits this spring but did find some trouble throwing strikes against the Nats Sunday, compiling three walks in his outing. In three games this spring, Holmes holds a 0.00 ERA, 1-0 record and 0.621 WHIP in his nine 2/3 innings of work. Holmes has walked only four of the 35 batters faced this spring. He struck out 13 of them.

“He had to pitch today,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game, “I thought that changeup today was really, really good…it was a good day for him overall.”

The Mets will continue to stretch out Holmes this spring, as his next test will commence once he gets deeper into games. However, with the injuries to Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas, Holmes is quietly emerging as a top arm for the Mets heading into the 2025 season.

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