Clay Holmes's Devastating Injury Leaves Mets With No Easy Answers

With their most reliable starter injured and facing a weekslong absence, where will the Mets turn?

Holmes fractured the fibula in his right leg during the Mets' 5-2 loss to the Yankees on Friday. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

They say being a Mets fan builds character. Well, the Amazin’s fanbase has built up enough resolve from the first 40-plus games of this misery-inducing season alone to last a lifetime—and it only got worse on Friday night.

Pitching in the top of the fourth inning in the opening game of the Subway Series, Mets starter Clay Holmes took a 111.1 mph comebacker to his right leg off the bat of the Yankees’ Spencer Jones. While there was immediate concern—Mets manager Carlos Mendoza and the club’s trainer emerged from the dugout to examine the veteran righthander—the gut punch didn’t arrive until later.

Holmes, after receiving X-rays during the game, had fractured the fibula in his right leg. Amazingly, the righty, a gritty grinder, had dismissed both Mendoza and the team’s trainer from the mound, insisting that he was fine.

Clay Holmes got hit by this comebacker off the bat of Spencer Jones in the fourth inning.

Holmes stayed in the game and pitched into the fifth https://t.co/9itrCjJSGc pic.twitter.com/TwCfIUgz4W

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) May 16, 2026

But, as Holmes went on to face seven more batters before finally exiting the game, even Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who had managed Holmes for four seasons in the Bronx, knew something was amiss observing from afar.

“I could tell he was hurt, and he’s not a guy that’s showing it a lot or trying not to show it, but you could tell it got him good,” Boone said. “Even watching him move off the mound when he was walking off, I know it didn’t look that great.”

Holmes, a reliever-turned-starter, led all Mets starters in innings pitched, ERA and Wins Above Replacement. Holmes, along with rookie ace Nolan McLean, are the only Mets starters to pitch into the seventh inning in 2026.

“It’s a huge blow,” Mendoza said. “He’s been one of the most consistent guys that we had in that rotation.”

Any other day of the week, if the struggling Mets could look into the Yankees’ dugout and take one thing for their own, it would be New York’s prodigious offense. On Saturday morning, the Yankees’ starting pitching depth—which is once again facing a test of its own after acing its previous trials—would undoubtedly be the envy of their crosstown rivals.

For the Mets have no easy answers now with Holmes sidelined for weeks, and maybe months.

Mets' starting pitching depth chart after Holmes injury

Pitcher	ERA	Strikeout Rate	Walk Rate
Nolan McLean	2.92	31.5%	7.4%
Freddy Peralta	3.10	23.8%	9.0%
Christian Scott	3.45	28.6%	12.9%
David Peterson	5.49	21.0%	7.7%

Possible Mets pitching replacements for Holmes

RHP Jack Wenninger

Wenninger, the Mets’ fifth-ranked prospect, may be the most likely candidate to claim the fifth spot in the club’s rotation on the strength of his impressive work for Triple-A Syracuse. The 6’4” righthander relies mostly on a mid-90s fastball and a plus-splitter but also throws a slider and changeup, offerings that have helped him post a superb 1.08 ERA and 27.5% strikeout rate in seven starts this year.

The one glaring issue? Wenninger has walked 18 batters in 33 ⅓ innings. But given the struggles of Mets starters not named Holmes or McLean, it may have been a matter of time before Wenninger found himself in the big leagues anyway. Holmes’s injury may force the issue.

RHP Jonah Tong

This is the far less appealing option for the Mets at the moment, even though Tong, the team’s second-ranked prospect, has experience at the big-league level and Wenninger doesn’t. While he flashed some swing-and-miss, command and control were equally problematic for Tong in his five starts down the stretch for the injury-riddled Mets in 2025, in which he posted a 7.71 ERA.

Tong, utilizing an upper-90s heater and changeup, has struck out a whopping 55 batters in 38 innings at Triple-A. But he is also walking 5.7 batters per nine innings and owns a 5.68 ERA.

RHP Tobias Myers

Myers, having pitched out of the bullpen to begin the season, hasn’t pitched more than three innings in any outing this season and isn’t stretched out for a starter’s workload. That said, his 3.25 ERA and minuscule 4.6% walk rate, particularly when juxtaposed against Wenninger and Tong’s command struggles, make him a viable option as an opener for the Mets, perhaps alongside one of the youngsters.

LHP Sean Manaea

Manaea too has worked out of the bullpen, to far less success than Myers. In theory, the lefty’s 210 career big-league starts make him a shoo-in as a potential fill-in for Holmes. In reality, Manaea’s struggles with injury last year and inconsistency this year make him the least likely of the club’s potential internal replacements. Truthfully, Manaea’s bloated .377 BABIP and 4.34 FIP suggest he’s actually pitched better than his 6.56 ERA in 23 ⅓ innings would suggest. Perhaps Manaea, like Myers, factors in as an opener for the Mets here and there.

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