Friday, February 22, 2025 • 1:10 PM
Clover Park • Port St. Lucie, FL
LHP Colton Gordon (0-0, -.–) vs. RHP Clay Holmes (0-0, -.–)
SNY

Cue the SNY music! Mets baseball is back!

The Mets return to the baseball field, St. Lucie, our television sets, and our lives this afternoon, taking on the Houston Astros. Juan Soto, one of the most exciting players in baseball, signed a massive contract with the Mets this off-season and will take the field today as a member of the New York Mets.

Tomorrow, the Mets will play 18 innings across two games, so between today and tomorrow we’ll see a sizeable chunk of the pitchers in the majors come along with some minor league arms. Today is all about Clay Holmes who hasn’t started in the majors since 2018. He has been an All-Star twice for the Yankees over the last three seasons posting a 155, 152, and 131 ERA+ over that stretch. The Mets will start the process to convert him into a starter this afternoon.

Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

Mets Lineup

  1. Francisco Lindor – SS
  2. Juan Soto – RF
  3. Pete Alonso – 1B
  4. Francisco Alvarez – C
  5. Jeff McNeil – 2B
  6. Luis Torrens – DH
  7. Brett Baty – 3B
  8. José Azocar – CF
  9. Rafael Ortega – LF

SP – Clay Holmes

Opposing Lineup

  1. Pedro León – CF
  2. Cooper Hummel – 1B
  3. Ben Gamel – RF
  4. Brice Matthews -2B
  5. César Salazar – C
  6. Zack Short – SS
  7. Jesús Bastidas – 3B
  8. Zach Daniels – LF
  9. Miguel Palma – DH

SP – Colton Gordon

Game Notes

  • The Mets released a list of players who are available to enter today’s matchup with the Astros. You can view the list of players by clicking here.
  • Juan Soto plays his first baseball game donning the Mets orange and blue. He’ll bat second behind Francisco Lindor versus the Astros.
  • Clay Holmes takes the mound for the first time as a New York Mets. Many have talked about his changeup during the offseason, and the right-hander gets to display it this afternoon.

Three Things To Watch For

  1. Clay Holmes the Starter. Earlier this week Carlos Mendoza stated the goal for Holmes today – about three innings or 45 pitches. He hit 45 pitches once last season and it was an outing where he walked two batters over 1 1/3 innings. He hit 30+ pitches only a few times. We’ll try not to read too much into pitch selection – let’s just get some innings in!
  2. Lindor and Soto on top of the lineup. Francisco Lindor is coming off of an MVP-level season for the Mets. Lindor had a Baseball Reference WAR of 6.0 in 2023 and followed it up with a 6.9 WAR last season, his second and third-best seasons in his career. Juan Soto had a 7.9 Baseball-Reference WAR in 2024. The Mets offense will live and die with this pair of superstars at the top of the lineup.
  3. Brett Baty. Where does Baty fit in this season? He got the call-up at the start of the season in 2024, struggled, and then Mark Vientos came up. With third base essentially belonging to Vientos, Baty has to compete for a role somewhere on the team. Baty has taken some reps at second this past week during drills. Is he competing for a bench job? Is he effectively auditioning for another team via trade?

Let’s go Mets!