Molded Clay

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Clayton Walter Holmes was born on March 27, 1993 in Dothan, Alabama (2020 pop. 71,258). His father, Wendall, was a pastor at New Teamon Baptist church in the Alabama town of Slocomb. Holmes “gave his life to Christ” at 11 years old. At some point in his life, Clay was diagnosed with Celiac diseases and to this day maintains a gluten free diet as a result. 

Holmes attended Slocomb High School, where he excelled in both baseball and basketball. He averaged a double-double in both his junior and senior seasons with the hoops squad. Holmes had a 4.0 GPA and was Slocomb’s class valedictorian. Well, excuse me. He was certainly smart enough to know baseball was his ticket. As a senior in 2011, Holmes helped the baseball team reach second place in the Class 3A playoffs. He committed to play baseball at Auburn University, but after the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him in the ninth round of the MLB Draft, Holmes signed with the team by Pirates scout Darren Mazeroski, the son of Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski. 

Holmes’ professional debut was with the Single-A State College Spikes in 2012. He went 5-3 with a 2.28 ERA in 13 starts and 59.1 innings pitched. After the season, Baseball America ranked him as the 10th top prospect in the Pirates organization. 

With the West Virginia Power in 2013, Clay stumbled a bit, going 5-6 with a 4.08 ERA in 25 starts. He missed all of 2014 after he underwent Tommy John surgery that March. 2015 was split between a rehab assignment with the Rookie-ball Gulf Coast Pirates and Advanced-A Ball Bradenton Marauders. In nine combined starts, Holmes went 1-2 with a 2.48 ERA. 

Holmes reached Double-A with the Altoona Curve in 2016. In 26 starts he finished 10-9 with a 4.22 ERA. More impressively, he had the highest ground-ball ratio (2.94) among all full season minor leaguers. 

2017 saw a promotion to Triple-A with Indianapolis. In 24 starts, Holmes put together a 10-5 3.36 ERA season. Finally, on April 6, 2018, Holmes got a taste of The Show. That day, Clay made his MLB debut against the Cincinnati Reds. He went two innings, giving up one run on two hits while striking out two and walking nobody. He was optioned back to Indy a week later. On the 4th of July against the Dodgers, Holmes made his first MLB start. It barely lasted longer than his first appearance in the bigs. He lasted two and a third innings, permitting five hits and four earned runs while walking three and striking out two. All in all, he had a 7.80 ERA in his four starts with the Pirates in 2018, and a 5.56 ERA in seven shots in relief. 

In 2019, Holmes made 35 relief appearances for Pittsburgh, pitching to a 5.58 ERA (4.97 FIP). However, in his final five outings, Clay did not allow an earned run. That’s what we call progress.
Holmes sported a 0.00 ERA in 2020. Because he only pitched in one and one third innings on Opening Day and then was out the rest of the pandemic-shortened year with a right forearm strain. 

2021 was a turning point. Holmes still was only pitching okay at best with the Pirates, but on July 26th he was traded to the Yankees for Diego Castillo and Hoy Park. He proceeded to kick ass, going 5-2 with a 1.61 ERA (2.10 FIP) in the Boogie Down for the remainder of the season. With the Yankees, Holmes threw his power slider a lot more often. In 2022, he went from throwing it 59 percent of the time to four out of every five pitches thrown. By May of ‘22, Holmes was the Yankees closer, thanks to Aroldis Chapman needing time on the injured list. He was named AL Reliever of the Month. Life was good - he made his first All-Star team. Clay finished with a 2.54 ERA (2.84 FIP) in 63.2 innings, striking out 65 batters in the process.

Holmes was kind of taken for granted in 2023. He didn’t get an invite to the All-Star Game, despite pitching to a 2.86 ERA (2.65 FIP) in 63 innings pitched. Holmes saved 24 games. In 2024, he saved 30 and made the All-Star team again, but lost his closer’s job in September to future teammate Luke Weaver. He finished with a 3.14 ERA (3.02 FIP), which is pretty good, but he blew a league-high 13 saves. 

On December 9, 2024, Holmes signed a three-year, $38 million contract with the Mets, including an opt out after the 2026 season. The caveat - Holmes was going to try to start ballgames again. It was a calculated risk by David Stearns and the Mets brain trust, and it proved to be a good one - Holmes was able to add three new pitches to his repertoire, bringing the total to six. 

Even though he hadn’t started in over half a decade, Holmes was named the Opening Day starter for the Mets in 2025. He didn’t win that game against the Astros in Houston, but he ended up pitching for 165.2 innings without any reported health issues, going 12-8 with a 3.53 ERA (4.11 FIP). His final start of the year, a six-inning one-hit shutout performance in Miami, almost saved the Mets’ season. 

Unless something awful happens, Holmes will most certainly opt out after this season. Let’s hope he makes it a good to great one. 

The Mets equipment truck will leave for Port St. Lucie, FL for Spring Training this Friday. Hallelujah. The Mets press release insisted that Mr. and Mrs. Met will help load the truck at 12:15 pm and the truck will pull out of the parking lot at 1pm.  

The Nationals announced they claimed Tsung-Che Cheng off waivers from the Mets.

Andy Martino chatted with Freddy Peralta. Peralta got a little more specific when talking about the first MLB game he went to. It was a Subway Series game at Shea. He has family in New York.