NEW YORK -- Asked Friday afternoon about his organization’s starting pitching depth, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns smiled and spoke about his “experience of how many starters you need over the course of a Major League season.”
Some four hours later, those words proved prophetic when the Mets suffered their first starting pitching injury of the season. Clay Holmes, the team’s most consistent pitcher through three rotation turns, exited Friday night’s 4-0 loss to the A’s at Citi Field due to left hamstring tightness.
The good news for the Mets is that Holmes feels he dodged a major issue. Team officials will wait to see how he recovers in the coming days, but there is a chance he won’t need to miss a start.
“I’m pretty optimistic with it,” Holmes said late Friday evening. “I feel like I’ll be able to make my next start. But until we wake up tomorrow and see where we’re at tomorrow, we don’t really know. Can’t rule anything out, but I feel pretty good about it right now.”
Holmes was cruising through his third start of the season, allowing one run in the third inning but no additional damage, when Tyler Soderstrom led off the sixth with a soft ground ball to the right side. As Holmes pounced off the mound, he felt a twinge in his hamstring that remained there as he sailed his next pitch to Jacob Wilson well above the strike zone. Holmes’ final offering was an 86.7 mph cutter, his slowest of the night, which Wilson smacked into left field for a single.
At that point, manager Carlos Mendoza and assistant trainer Bryan Baca came to the mound to chat with Holmes. Following a brief conversation, Holmes departed alongside Baca.
Tobias Myers entered and was given additional time to warm, pitching well at first but ultimately allowing three runs in the ninth.
“There was just kind of a weird feeling and some unsureness about what was going on,” Holmes said. “I think [we] just made the smart decision to not make it worse. But hopefully, we’re in a good spot. It doesn’t seem too major.”
If Holmes must miss time, the leading candidate to replace him would be Sean Manaea, who has stayed stretched out in the bullpen since the Mets decided not to open the season with him as part of a six-man rotation. While Manaea’s velocity remains down from last season, he holds a 3.00 ERA over nine innings as a reliever this season. In the last two of those outings, he’s thrown 74 and 70 pitches, respectively.
Myers was also stretched out at the end of camp, but the Mets have since used him in shorter, higher leverage spots. His season high in pitches remains the 39 he threw on Opening Day.
Other internal options include Triple-A pitchers Jonah Tong and Christian Scott. Tong, the team’s second-ranked prospect, has a 5.06 ERA through three starts at Syracuse, though most of that damage came in a single bad outing. Scott threw five shutout innings in his second start on Thursday, but the Mets are taking things slow with him as he returns from Tommy John surgery.
Neither Scott nor Tong figures to leapfrog ahead of Manaea and Myers at this time.
In any event, it would be difficult to replace Holmes, who threw 165 2/3 innings last year for the Mets after converting from relief work to the starting rotation. Over his first three starts this year, Holmes appeared even stronger, inducing more soft contact and ranking second in the Majors behind José Soriano in ground-ball rate. Holmes’ newest offering, a curveball, had become a usable weapon for him, giving him a six-pitch mix.
He showcased all of that prior to tweaking his hamstring on Friday. If not for a ground ball that Francisco Lindor was unable to turn into a double play in the third inning, Holmes may have even delivered his second consecutive scoreless effort.
As it was, he allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings before departing. The way the Mets’ offense is going, with no runs for 17 consecutive innings, that proved more than enough.
“He was pitch efficient,” Mendoza said of Holmes. “He was putting guys on the ground with the sinker. … He continues to get ground balls. What he’s been able to do has been pretty impressive.”