NEWSLETTER
The rumors popped up not that long ago out of New York, and turns out they had a lot of legs: Clay Holmes is converting into a starting pitcher. And he’s staying in New York, but changing teams.
Holmes, 31, has been a reliever essentially all of his big league career, having been converted by the Pirates at the Triple-A/MLB flip back in 2018.
The thing about this deal is that, even if Holmes doesn’t work out as a starter, it’s not a terrible signing for the Mets. Yeah, maybe that third year is a bit more than you’d give to him as a reliever, but he’s been consistently very good at the back of the Yankees’ bullpen, some late leads blown notwithstanding.
That is to say, I would’ve loved to have Holmes joining the Cubs’ bullpen. But they very likely weren’t going to sign him to start, and they simply do not have anything in their recent track record to suggest they are signing any relievers to these kinds of deals. Just isn’t the MO.
Now the Mets have Holmes and Frankie Montas in the door to replace their many outgoing arms (Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, and Jose Quintana), though they could certainly still stand to add another impactful arm. You can fully expect them to be in on other starting pitchers, regardless of what happens on the positional side.
