What a day for the New York Mets’ Clay Holmes! Holmes celebrated his 32nd birthday during the Opening Day faceoff against the Houston Astros. The stakes were high, with every pitch carrying weight for the season ahead. However, despite the Mets’ loss to the Astros on March 27, Holmes didn’t have the worst start, going 4.2 innings. But was it really that great?

Not quite. After an untouchable spring training, Holmes’ Opening Day performance didn’t live up to expectations. The right-handed pitcher allowed two runs on five hits, walked four, and was forced to throw extra pitches. Fans weren’t thrilled and didn’t hold back their reactions. But why the frustration?

During spring training, Holmes was dominant, throwing 19.1 innings over five starts. More notably, this was his first major league start since his rookie season in 2018. Since then, he had exclusively been a reliever—until now. Holmes relied almost entirely on his sinker, with no changeups in the mix. Against a righty-heavy lineup like the Astros, that approach was bound to be risky. Fans weren’t impressed, and they let their disappointment be known. But is it too early to panic?

Going by his performance, it’s quite evident that it is challenging to get from the bullpen to the starting rotation. It also hinted at the lower stamina level that often caused difficulty pitching deeper into the games, something that Holmes hadn’t been much aware of. That said, he had a solid 2024 season, posting a 3.14 ERA, 30 saves, 68 strikeouts, and a 1.30 WHIP. So while there’s room for improvement, it’s far from a disaster. 

Addressing these weaknesses and making adjustments will be crucial moving forward. However, judging by fan reactions, the Opening Day performance didn’t inspire much confidence.

Clay Holmes’ Opening Day game left fans in a frenzy

While the opening day performance paved the way for the New York Mets’ Clay Holmes to improve his pitching ability, fans were not happy with how he opened the innings on March 27th. Highlighting this, one fan mentioned, “Yankees fans tried to warn me about Clay Holmes, and I ignored them.” 

An opening day isn’t just another day on the calendar; rather, it’s the start of something new and the pinnacle of the sports year. So, it’s quite evident for everyone to expect their favorite team’s players to perform excellently. Now, considering a statement, “Yankees fans tried to warn me about Clay Holmes and I ignored them,” an X user denied such a warning. However, given the way Holmes performed on the opening day, it is too early to lose faith in him.

“Just took a look at how Clay Holmes is doing,” is what a quirky fan commented, posting a funny video clip. The video clip indicates that Holmes is in such a position that he doesn’t seem either happy or sad. It’s a funny way to take a dig at him. However, it cannot be ignored that his performance was mediocre and even maybe the cause of New York’s 3-1 loss against the Astros.

Opening Day brought more questions than answers for the Mets, and Clay Holmes was at the centre of it. “Clay Holmes was bad in the bullpen; how was he gonna be good as a starter lmao.” The skepticism wasn’t unfounded. His reliance on sinkers made life easy for Astros hitters, who jumped all over them. He tried switching things up, but the results weren’t much better. Like it or not, the scrutiny isn’t slowing down.

The opening day wasn’t at all eventful for Clay Holmes. Take the loaded bases without any outs, and that’s what fans were welcomed with, who expected a lot from him. A sports fanatic pointed out the mistakes in his tweet: “Bases loaded, no outs, welcome back Clay Holmes.” For a long time, the Mets hadn’t had luck by their side, especially with the closers, and the same happened with Holmes on Opening Day.

That’s quite a bad day for the Mets, isn’t it? Right. And that might be the reason a quirky fan wants Clay Holmes back in the bullpen. “Clay Holmes, get your a– back in the bullpen.” 

Harsh, Maybe. But given his stellar spring training, this was a far cry from what fans expected. It wasn’t a complete disaster, but expectations were much higher. Can Holmes bounce back? Will he adjust and prove he belongs in the starting rotation? We’ll have to wait and see.

What do you think? Should the Mets stick with Holmes as a starter or move him back to the bullpen? Share your thoughts in the comments!