The first 6 innings in today's NY Mets game can help answer a trade deadline question

A bat of some kind and maybe a half-dozen bullpen arms, give or take, are clear New York Mets trade deadline needs. What about starting pitching? With the staff all healthy, the urgency to add a starting pitcher lessons. But that can always change hours after David Wright’s number five officially hangs at Citi Field.

Clay Holmes is the scheduled starter for the Mets. The project has been good, but not great. Holmes is quickly turning into a limited starting pitcher. He hasn’t gone 6 innings since June 7. Several unspectacular starts of late, most frustratingly being shorter outings, have some wondering if a move to the bullpen is one way to rectify this. Already at 103.1 innings with more than two months left in the regular season, the Mets need to assess if he has the durability to go on as a member of their rotation.

The Mets will need to decide soon if they make a bold move with Clay Holmes

The backup plan for Holmes was always to move him back into a relief role if this starting pitching thing didn’t work. A 3.31 ERA through 19 starts suggests he’s doing just fine. It’s not exactly the full story. His 4.23 FIP suggests he has been lucky. Waning strikeout numbers and increasing walks help explain this difference in ERA and FIP.

Holmes hasn’t started off July on a hot streak, noticeably tiring quickly. He has a 5.28 ERA this month in three appearances. In 15.1 innings, he has 8 strikeouts and 6 walks. The decrease in strikeouts could, theoretically, save him from a large early pitch count. Limited to 81-90 pitches in each July start, the Mets are treating him very carefully.

One Saturday start in late July shouldn’t determine what the Mets ultimately do with Holmes. However, time is running out for them to make any swift decision. At most, he has two starts left to make before the trade deadline with the second projected to be right on the cusp of any final decisions.

The wise thing to do would be to add starting pitching regardless of what they want to do with Holmes. He has been one of two healthy starting pitchers this year from start to finish, All-Star David Peterson being the other. Holmes would benefit from additional time off, skipping him in the rotation when needed or having him piggyback alongside someone else the same way they did with him and Sean Manaea to finish the first half.

The Mets have been about innings, not necessarily labeling roles, this season. Holmes’ experience out of the bullpen gives them some creative freedom. There just isn’t a guarantee of anything outside-of-the-box working so well.