Holmes heading crosstown to Mets -- to be a starter

NEW YORK -- The Mets agreed to terms on a three-year contract with right-hander Clay Holmes, the former Yankees closer, the team announced. But the Mets do not intend to use Holmes as a reliever. Instead, they will convert him to the rotation, banking on his ability to use a three-pitch mix multiple times through a batting order.

The deal, which includes an opt-out after the 2026 season, is expected to be worth $38 million, though the team did not disclose the value.

“We’re excited to bring Clay into the organization and collaborate on his transition to the starting rotation,” said president of baseball operations David Stearns. “Clay has an elite repertoire, knows New York, and will be a key contributor going forward.”

When it becomes official, the signing will become the latest example of an established reliever stretching out as a starter. Former Mets reliever Seth Lugo sparked the trend in 2023 when he signed with the Padres and produced a 3.57 ERA in 26 starts. A year later with the Royals, Lugo finished second in American League Cy Young voting. His replacement in the San Diego rotation, Michael King, subsequently went from a standout Yankees reliever to an excellent Padres starter, garnering Cy Young votes as well.

Unlike those two, Holmes doesn’t boast four-plus pitches. But he does throw three with regularity, including a bread-and-butter, high-velocity sinker that he used to lead the Majors with a 64.6 percent ground-ball rate last season. He complements that pitch with two distinct breaking balls, a slider and sweeper, which he leaned on to strike out 68 batters in 63 innings.

That’s not to say everything went well in 2024 for Holmes, who blew 13 saves during the regular season and lost the full-time closer’s job in September. But Holmes, who will celebrate his 32nd birthday on Opening Day (March 27), did save a career-high 30 games and made the AL All-Star team, finishing with a 3.14 ERA in 67 appearances. Over the past four seasons, he’s produced a 3.05 mark over 259 2/3 innings.

How that skill set might work in a big league rotation remains to be seen. A ninth-round Draft pick of the Pirates in 2011, Holmes served as a starting pitcher until 2018, when he made his big league debut and settled into a multi-inning relief role in Pittsburgh. He became a full-time reliever after that, and once the Pirates traded him to the Yankees for infielders Hoy Park and Diego Castillo prior to the 2021 Trade Deadline, Holmes blossomed into a high-leverage, end-game option.

The Mets, though, see him as a pitcher who can provide length -- something they remain in need of after losing Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana to free agency. Severino inked a three-year, $67 million deal with the A’s, and the other two could also end up elsewhere. So far, the Mets have replaced them with Frankie Montas on a two-year, $34 million contract and Holmes on a three-year, $38 million pact.

It’s reminiscent of last offseason, when president of baseball operations David Stearns struck short-term, prove-it-deals for Manaea and Severino -- two pitchers who had experienced significant success at times in their careers, but whose inconsistencies and injuries had dampened their markets. In Holmes’ case, the Mets are paying far less than the going rate for a top-flight starter because he has no recent experience as a starting pitcher.

Mets officials are confident in their ability to turn such question marks into exclamation points, like they did with Manaea and Severino. As pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and his team garner more and more of a reputation for helping pitchers, using a state-of-the-art pitching lab in Port St. Lucie, Fla., to build repertoires and sharpen pitch shapes, free agents around the league have increasingly begun pointing to Queens as a pitching destination.

On an introductory video conference Friday, Montas said he reached out to both Manaea and Severino, who spoke glowingly of the program.

“That was one of the things that sold me on the Mets,” Montas said.

Even after acquiring Montas and Holmes, the Mets could still use starting pitching help. Their two incumbent rotation members, Kodai Senga and David Peterson, both carried question marks into the offseason. While the Mets do possess depth behind them, another proven starting pitcher could help.