Mets Sign Hot and Cold Yankees former All-Star

By Lachlan Wellington December 08, 2024 05:01

Photo by Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Mets have agreed a deal with veteran Yankees reliever and former closer Clay Holmes, as the two parties reach a contract agreement for a three-year $38 million deal, a source told MLB.com.

The biggest surprise about this deal is that the Mets plan on using Holmes as a starting pitcher as opposed to the bullpen role he has fulfilled over the last few seasons for the Yankees. Holmes has 74 saves across the last three seasons for the Yankees, however, he will now be a starter for the first time since 2018 when he was with the Pirates.

Holmes has been pretty good for the Yankees until an up and down 2024 season, being an absolute shutout mixed with really poor runs where he blew a lot of games. In 2024, Holmes had 30 saves with a 3.14 Earned run average (ERA) alongside 68 strikeouts and a walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP) of 1.30. The stat which will concern the Mets the most though is that Holmes had 13 blown saves in 2024 for the Yankees- which led the majors.

Holmes began his major league career with the Pittsburgh Pirates where he spent four seasons and held an ERA of 5.57. The Yankees acquired Holmes at the trade deadline in 2021 and during his time in pinstripes, Holmes was mostly fantastic in pinstripes as he was named an All-Star twice holding a Yankees ERA of 2.69 across 220 outings.

One of the main reasons for Holmes' Yankees success was his high ground-ball rate of 67.8%, this being the best amongst any reliever since Holmes moved to the Bronx. Holmes had the Yankees closer role for sometime but with too many blown saves, Luke Weaver became the closer and Holmes was demoted to a later innings relief option in 2024.

Holmes did rally, however, for the Yankees during the postseason, where he held an ERA of 2.25 across 12 playoff innings with 12 strikeouts, a 1.12 WHIP during this period with a 3-1 record.

The Mets have perhaps decided to try and convert Holmes back into a starter as the market for starting pitching this offseason is scarce and New York also let starter Luis Severino go in free agency to the Oakland Athletics, therefore they were in need of another starter.

This is the second addition to the Mets rotation this off-season after they added right-handed starter Frankie Montas on a two-year, $34 million deal earlier in free agency after he played for both the Reds and the Brewers in 2024.

Several other teams have recently tried to convert a reliever into a starter including the Giants when they converted former Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks into a starter with mixed success and in 2024 both Garrett Crochet and Michael King went from bullpen options to starters with pretty good success.

Holmes' pitching repertoire also sets him up perhaps better to make the move from the bullpen to a starting position as he primarily uses three different pitches. Holmes uses a sinker (56.3% of the time in 2024), a slider (23%) and a sweeper (20.5%), while he may try to add another pitch, three is already a solid start for a starter.

For the Yankees, the move from Holmes means that they will need to prioritize relief options in order to bolster their bullpen with this loss. The form of new closer Luke Weaver is encouraging, however, they will need some more options ahead of 2025 if they are to compete again for the World Series.