Mets Spring Training Notes: Clay Holmes throws ‘impressive’ three-inning live batting practice, Mark Vientos ‘on a mission’

For the first time since the calendar flipped to 2025, Mets pitchers and catchers were in action for official workouts in Port St. Lucie, Fla. on Wednesday.

While the headline of the day was reliever-turned-starter Clay Holmes throwing live batting practice with three “up-downs” (three simulated innings with breaks in the dugout in between), there were some other newsworthy items as well, like reliever A.J. Minter throwing off the mound, and Mark Vientos reporting to camp early.

Here’s what manager Carlos Mendoza had to say about Wednesday’s action…

On Clay Holmes already ramping up to throw three-inning live BP

“This is something we started as soon as we signed him, and the fact that on Day 1 of pitchers and catchers he’s already at three ups, that’s pretty impressive. You’ve got to give him credit, because that shows all the work that he did as soon as we signed him, like I said, with the mindset that he knew he was making that transition. So he knew he needed to get here and ready to go to face hitters and a couple of ups and things like that as a reliever. Some of these guys are barely starting their bullpen progressions, so you’ve got to give him credit, our pitching guys, because they communicated and they put together a really good plan. We’ve got to keep it that way. It was encouraging, like I said, three ups today, and he looks good.”

Is there an innings limit in mind for Holmes this season?

“No, not really. We trust the process, we trust our guys, all the metrics that we do in the training room. These guys, after every outing, after every time they touch the mound, they go through a lot of testing there. That’s how we make our decisions, plus the feedback from the players as well. So, as far as innings go, we’ll see. He’s ready to go.”

On Holmes building out his arsenal of pitches

“He’s working on a couple pitches. We know that sweeper-slider plus the power sinker, right? He changeup was encouraging today against lefties. The four-seam is something that he’s playing around with. Cutter, could be like a shorter slider, if you want to call it. But he’s working on that repertoire, because as a starter you’re going to need more than two pitches to get through a lineup, not only two times through but a third time through a lineup he’s going to need that.”

On A.J. Minter throwing at ‘low intensity’ off the mound

“He’s in the middle of his bullpen progression. Low intensity. Like I said yesterday, the goal is that at the end of the month his intensity, he’s picking it up, and hopefully move on to live BPs. If we can get him somewhere between four or five games before we break camp, I don’t want to put a number [on it], but that’s the ideal for a reliever. But if we have to do that on a backfield — the good thing is he’s feeling really good. It was encouraging to see him getting on the mound today and actually throwing to a catcher at medium volume, if you want to call it, so that was good.”

“The goal is to have him ready for Opening Day.”

On Mark Vientos arriving to camp early

“It goes to show you that he’s not satisfied. Even throughout the offseason, his work was phenomenal. He was getting after it. I saw him early in January with Lindor and he looked like he was ready to play nine innings. He worked really hard at third base with his defense, and physically he looks really good. So the fact that he’s already here, that goes to show you that he’s on a mission.”