PORT ST. LUCIE — The Mets will get their first take a look at Clay Holmes as a beginning pitcher this weekend when Grapefruit League play begins. The previous Yankees reliever will begin the spring opener Saturday in opposition to the Houston Astros at Clover Park.
Holmes hasn’t made a Main League begin since 2018, and whereas a Grapefruit League recreation doesn’t precisely carry the identical weight as a daily season recreation, it’s an opportunity for the right-hander to get again into the swing of issues as a starter, going by his pregame routine, getting up 3 times and throwing about 40-45 pitches.
“I think the biggest thing is feeling the game speed, feeling the pitch clock, making pitches and feeling the ups,” Holmes stated after Wednesday’s exercise. “A big thing for me this spring is feeling the ups. I think that’s why we kind of started early.”
When Holmes and his agent made the choice to return to a beginning function and sought groups that had been curious about him as a starter, he restructured his offseason to maneuver up his throwing development. The 31-year-old didn’t must utterly overhaul his conditioning, however he did have so as to add pitches and stretch out, shifting his schedule to have the ability to come into camp prepared for a heavy workload.
“I’ve always kind of prided myself on coming in and being my best self, and ready to go,” Holmes stated. “I think it’s just a matter of pushing things up, as far as my throwing progression goes. I just had to start throwing lives a little earlier, mixing in two-up bullpens a little earlier, and adding some pitches and some ups earlier to put myself in the situation. As far as the type of training or conditioning, those things all, relatively, stayed pretty similar.”
His mindset on the mound can be just like what it was when he was a reliever as effectively.
“I’ve kind of tried to go into a pretty simple mentality of ‘Let’s just try to throw a one-inning shutout each time,’” Holmes stated. “I’ll get to throw before the game and not be so rushed getting warmed up, but I think my mentality is going to try to stay the same when I’m out there. It’s just about executing pitches, which I’ve been trying to do for the past few years.”
Holmes relied on a tough gyro slider, a sinker and a sweeper as a reliever with the Yankees. As a starter with the Pirates, he additionally threw a four-seam fastball, a changeup, a curveball and a cutter, relying closely on the curveball and the cutter to get swings and misses.
After being transformed to a reliever with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2018, Holmes step by step deserted the pitches that weren’t serving him, however as a starter, he’ll add just a few again into the combo. He already added the four-seam fastball in for the postseason final yr, with good velocity (97.7 mph), however below-average trip. The Mets are intrigued along with his changeup, which might give him a extra well-rounded pitch combine.
Holmes misses a number of bats (practically 10 strikeouts per 9 innings), however he makes his dwelling with floor balls. With the Yankees, he didn’t precisely have elite protection behind him. Tasking a ground-ball pitcher like Holmes with defending slim leads in high-leverage innings with poor protection behind him was a questionable alternative, however the Mets assume he’ll profit from the Gold Glove-caliber protection of shortstop Francisco Lindor.
Extra importantly, they assume he has the stuff and the construct to begin once more. The 6-5, 245-pound righty had one of many nastiest sweepers in baseball final yr and the 96-mph gyro slider is a harmful weapon.
It’s a raffle, but when pitching coach Jeremy Hefner can work the identical magic that he did with Sean Manaea and Luis Severino final season, the Mets will look sensible.
Getting as much as 40-45 pitches over three innings Saturday will assist the Mets and Holmes get a way of what work nonetheless must be performed, however for now, he’s proper on monitor.
“It does feel good, in a sense,” Holmes stated. “I know I have time, I can go out there and give it all I have, and we can slowly build up, and really don’t have to worry about taking things fast and really stressing things in a way we don’t need to.”
