{"id":16467,"date":"2025-05-10T17:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T17:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/16467\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T17:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T17:28:12","slug":"clay-holmes-reflects-on-transition-from-yankees-closer-to-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/16467\/","title":{"rendered":"Clay Holmes reflects on transition from Yankees closer to starter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Mets<\/a> made one of the offseason’s boldest moves by signing former New York Yankees closer Clay Holmes<\/a> and converting him into a full-time starting pitcher\u2013 a transition Holmes describes as \u201cperfect so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

The right-hander, who signed a three-year, $38 million deal with the Mets<\/a>, has emerged as a critical piece in the team’s pitching rotation, helping the club remain among the National League’s top teams and in first place in the NL East.<\/p>\n

Holmes has quickly adapted to his new role. After his latest outing, a six-inning, one-run performance against the Cubs on Friday, the 32-year-old is now 5-1 with a 2.74 ERA in eight starts. He’s doing it<\/a> with a six-pitch arsenal and a methodical mindset developed over years as a high-leverage reliever.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a starter, it’s just very different,\u201d Holmes told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. \u201cYou spend the week preparing for that moment\u2026 the starter routine and being able to make a huge impact on that one game is something I enjoy more than I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

This mindset shift came after multiple teams approached Holmes last winter to explore the possibility of starting. While a few clubs offered him more money as a reliever, the Mets won him over with their detailed pitching analytics.<\/p>\n

He found familiarity in manager Carlos Mendoza and pitching coach Desi Druschel, both former Yankees staff members, and confidence in New York’s vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, this journey has been great, and this thing honestly has worked out perfectly so far,\u201d Holmes added.<\/p>\n

Related New York Mets NewsArticle continues below<\/p>\n

Clay Holmes’ transition to starter is not the usual route<\/p>\n

Holmes’ transition is one of baseball’s rare reversals, from bullpen to rotation. Few pitchers have made this switch successfully, but Holmes appears to be defying expectations. His mix includes a devastating changeup, which he reintroduced for left-handed batters, and he already is at nearly 43 innings pitched, more than halfway to his career-high of 70 innings in 2021.<\/p>\n

Holmes was a starter in the minor leagues for a while and did log 136 innings in 2016, but that was nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n

The Mets’ pitching rotation has benefited from Holmes’ durability and preparation, especially with veterans like Sean Manaea<\/a> and Frankie Montas<\/a> missing time.<\/p>\n

As the season progresses, New York is cautiously managing Holmes’ workload, using a six-man rotation to keep arms fresh, although it does put pressure on their bullpen, which has to play a man short since MLB limits rosters to 13 pitchers in total.<\/p>\n

With each outing, Holmes continues to prove that the Mets bet wisely<\/a>. His transformation from the New York Yankees closer to a dependable starting pitcher for the Mets might end up being one of the most valuable moves of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Mets made one of the offseason’s boldest moves by signing former New York Yankees closer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,1443,1712,1325,4,1690,61,62,2548,2547,1268,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-16467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-carlos-mendoza","10":"tag-clay-holmes","11":"tag-frankie-montas","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-new-york-yankees","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkyankees","18":"tag-sean-manaea","19":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114484721195055770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}