Inside The Mets

Mets' Clay Holmes reveals ex-Yankees teammate's help in crafting crucial pitch

New York Mets starter Clay Holmes learned his fantastic new pitch from a former New York Yankees teammate.

Grant Young

Feb 12, 2025; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets pitcher Clay Holmes (35) pitches during a Spring Training workout at Clover Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Feb 12, 2025; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets pitcher Clay Holmes (35) pitches during a Spring Training workout at Clover Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
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On March 13, New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza revealed that Clay Holmes would be his team's Opening Day starter.

“He earned it. We like what we’re seeing,” Mendoza said of Holmes, per an X post from SNY. “He put himself in a really good position, showed up here early in camp. He was ahead of everyone. But again, I think it’s more the way he’s looked so far making that transition, and we’re comfortable with him going into Opening Day.”

It's easy to see why Mendoza and the Mets would be comfortable with the former New York Yankees closer starting their first game, given that he has produced a 0.62 WHIP and 13 strikeouts over 9.2 scoreless innings so far this spring.

While there were some questions about how Holmes' sinker-heavy repertoire would translate from the bullpen to the rotation, the 31-year-old has added a changeup this offseason that balances his pitches out and adds depth to his arsenal.

And during a March 12 appearance on The Show, Holmes revealed where he learned his shiny new changeup from.

"I forget when exactly it was last year, in the middle of the year, but the relievers oftentimes get on the mound before the game if you haven't thrown in a day or so," Holmes said. "We have some strings up [in the bullpen] to show the strike zone. You know, it may have been me, Tommy Kahnle, and [Luke] Weaver. A couple of guys with good changeups... And I was like 'Weaver, show me your grip.'

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"I just threw it, and I was like 'Wow, that wasn't too bad,'" Holmes continued. "And I just kept throwing it as kind of a fun thing to do for the rest of the year. But there was a little confidence that, 'Hey, I could throw a changeup if I need to.' That evolved into the offseason... After some tinkering, I started to get the ball moving. I mean honestly, better than my sinker, into the negative [vertical]. That's when I kind of realized, maybe we're on to something here."

Perhaps Holmes will use this changeup that Luke Weaver taught him against the Yankees this season.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Mets and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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