As Pete Alonso was breaking the Mets' all-time home run record on Tuesday night at Citi Field, the struggles of Clay Holmes got lost in the shuffle.
After being given a 5-1 lead entering the top of the fourth, Holmes couldn't get through the inning as he dealt with command issues. He allowed four runs in the frame, exiting with two outs after throwing 85 pitches (just 46 strikes) over 3.2 innings.
Overall on Tuesday, Holmes gave up five runs on six hits while walking five and striking out four.
It was the second time in his last three starts that Holmes didn't make it past the fourth inning, with the other start during that stretch -- a strong, economical effort where he threw 75 pitches over 5.0 innings while allowing two runs -- kind of coloring why the situation with him is such a confounding one.
Holmes has been effective at times recently, with the above start and a 5.0 inning, one-run outing against the Giants on July 25 standing out.
But even when he's pitching well, he's been limited to just 5.0 innings by design as the Mets manage his workload in what is his first season since transitioning from being a long-time impact reliever.
That means that even when Holmes' stuff is doing what he wants it to do, the bullpen is given a heavy load.
It's a situation that seems untenable, and stands out more given how Holmes has pitched since July 8.
In 32.2 innings over seven starts during that span, Holmes has allowed 41 hits while pitching to a 5.79 ERA.
Holmes is up to 126.0 innings pitched this season after throwing 63.0 innings each of the last two years. His previous career-high for innings came in 2021, when he threw 70.0.
Before the season, Holmes said his goal was to throw at least 160 innings.
"It's hard to just put arbitrary numbers on things and say, 'If you hit this number, that's all you can handle.' I don't believe in that," Holmes said in December. "I think there's definitely things you need to monitor, to see how your body's holding up and the strength and mobility things. ... I want to throw as many innings as I can."
The Mets have said recently that Holmes is fine physically, and his fastball maxed out at 96.3 mph during his start on Tuesday. So it's clear he still has the ability to be effective this season. But it's hard to make the argument that he should remain in the rotation for much longer.
However, the Mets are facing several issues when it comes to potentially having Holmes switch to the bullpen sooner rather than later.
One issue is that Frankie Montas has been moved from the rotation to the bullpen, and is being replaced in the rotation by Nolan McLean. That means that if the Mets slide Holmes to relief for the remainder of the year, they will need another starting pitcher to take his place.
That could be easy enough, sinceBrandon Sproathas been dominating for Triple-A Syracuse over the last month-plus and could conceivably be that guy. But there would be a roster crunch in that scenario.
Ahead of Wednesday's game, the Mets are expected to call up Paul Blackburn for a bullpen role. The move for Blackburn will likely be optioning Justin Hagenman to Syracuse. When McLean is promoted ahead of Saturday's start, New York could possibly DFA Blackburn to make room on the 26-man roster.
If the next move after that is to slide Holmes to the bullpen and call someone up to replace him in the rotation, the Mets would have a hard decision on their hands.
Of all the pitchers in the regular eight-man bullpen, the only one with minor league options is Reed Garrett, who has a 2.59 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. So he's obviously going nowhere.
That leaves Ryne Stanek (5.31 ERA, 1.54 WHIP) as the potential DFA candidate if Holmes is moved to the bullpen soon. But Stanek has shown he can be a difference-maker when he's on, including during last year's run to Game 6 of the NLCS.
Because of all that, the Mets could perhaps wait until Sept. 1 to slide Holmes to a relief role.
At that point, active rosters will expand to 28, which would theoretically allow the Mets to put Holmes in the 'pen, call someone up to replace him in the rotation, keep Stanek, and still have one active roster spot left for an extra position player.
If the Mets choose the above route, they will have to send Holmes out to start two or three more times -- something that would be easier to handle if their other starters not named David Peterson began pitching into the sixth inning and beyond.
In an ideal world, the Mets reach the playoffs and have Holmes in the bullpen as a multi-inning weapon when they get there. But they're going to have to do some finessing between now and then in high-stress games, with someone's roster spot possibly on the line if things go haywire.
