{"id":589533,"date":"2026-02-24T05:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/589533\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T05:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:16:19","slug":"clay-holmes-wbc-nod-is-another-step-toward-shedding-mets-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/589533\/","title":{"rendered":"Clay Holmes&#8217; WBC nod is another step toward shedding Mets &#8216;cloud&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DUNEDIN, Fla. \u2014 Clay Holmes plans to make one more start in Mets camp before he begins his next spring challenge: the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n<p>The right-hander first talked about participating in the tournament last year after Andy Pettitte, Team USA\u2019s pitching coach, contacted him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said he wanted me to be a part of the team, and I\u2019m honored to get an opportunity to do this,\u201d Holmes said after making his first Grapefruit League start Monday. \u201cI think the world of Andy. Someone like him believing in me and being in my corner and wanting me to be part of the team was special and meant something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s another step in Holmes\u2019 career.<\/p>\n<p>It was just a year ago that he entered spring training dealing with questions about whether he\u2019d be able to be successful as a starter after breaking out as a reliever with the Yankees, where he\u2019d met Pettitte.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38583230\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/new-york-mets-starting-pitcher-122069720_77edee.jpg\" alt=\"New York Mets pitcher Clay Holmes throws a baseball during spring training against the Toronto Blue Jays.\" class=\"wp-image-38583230\"  \/>Clay Holmes throws a pitch during his Feb. 23 Grapefruit League start for the Mets. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>Holmes ended up throwing 165 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings, only three fewer than team leader David Peterson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew last year a cloud followed me,\u201d Holmes said. \u201c \u2018How many innings can you throw?\u2019 I never doubted myself. It\u2019s nice to know I\u2019m capable of it, [but] it doesn\u2019t make it any easier this year. I just have something to build on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Holmes\u2019 2025 wasn\u2019t totally smooth. <\/p>\n<p>After putting up a 2.99 ERA over his first 17 starts, he pitched to a 4.52 ERA over his final 14 starts \u2014 excluding two September relief appearances.<\/p>\n<p>This year, Holmes is again a full-time starter, and he\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/17\/sports\/clay-holmes-workload-increases-as-he-gears-up-for-wbc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">adding to his workload with the WBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Before the right-hander made his first start of the spring against Toronto at TD Ballpark, Carlos Mendoza sounded unconcerned about Holmes pitching too much.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a guy that takes very little time off from throwing,\u201d the Mets manager said. \u201cWe\u2019re not doing anything different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Holmes\u2019 inclusion in the WBC won\u2019t impact anything, according to Mendoza.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s basically the same progression as last year,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cThe WBC has nothing to do with it. It\u2019s a credit to him. He\u2019s so meticulous about his preparation and offseason training.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38583234\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/new-york-mets-pitcher-clay-122004378.jpg\" alt=\"New York Mets pitcher Clay Holmes throwing during Spring Training.\" class=\"wp-image-38583234\"  \/>Clay Holmes throws during the Mets\u2019 spring training session Feb. 22. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n<p>Holmes allowed just one hit in 3 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings in a 4-3 win, but that hit was a two-run, 431-foot homer to dead center by Kazuma Okamoto off a curveball that Holmes left up.<\/p>\n<p>Okamoto, who <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/03\/sports\/blue-jays-signing-japanese-star-kazuma-okamoto\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed with Toronto this offseason<\/a>, will play for Team Japan in the WBC. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Holmes joked that he might be able to use the bad pitch to his advantage next month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe he\u2019ll go back to his Japanese teammates and say, \u2018He throws a big curveball to right-handers,\u2019 \u2019\u2019 Holmes said.<\/p>\n<p>Holmes walked two and struck out three over a 57-pitch outing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a big part of our rotation,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHe was super-consistent for us last year, and it wasn\u2019t easy making that transition. People were talking [about] innings limits and things like that, and we never put a limit on him. It\u2019s Year 2, and he continues to be a big part of our rotation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUNEDIN, Fla. \u2014 Clay Holmes plans to make one more start in Mets camp before he begins his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,1712,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,185,151,4820],"class_list":{"0":"post-589533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-clay-holmes","10":"tag-mets","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-mets","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkmets","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-spring-training","18":"tag-world-baseball-classic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116123914215895135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589533","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=589533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}