{"id":354522,"date":"2025-12-17T19:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T19:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/354522\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T19:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T19:30:07","slug":"two-mets-starters-make-risky-decision-ahead-of-regular-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/354522\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Mets starters make risky decision ahead of regular season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two key pieces of the Mets<\/a>\u2019 starting rotation will be pitching in the World Baseball Classic next spring.<\/p>\n

Right-handers Nolan McLean and Clay Holmes are on Team USA\u2019s roster, USA Baseball announced<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

While both starters will have a rare opportunity to represent their country and can benefit from this experience, it\u2019s also a risky decision considering what those arms mean to the Mets heading into next season.<\/p>\n

McLean is entering his first full season in the big leagues after his impressive first impression this past summer. He showed flashes of ace-caliber stuff this past summer and figures to be one of the Mets\u2019 best starters in 2026 and beyond, even if they\u2019re able to import a proven No. 1 via free agency or trade. <\/p>\n

Holmes, meanwhile, is entering his second year as a starter with the Mets. The Mets need Holmes to be a consistent option every five days and eat up innings in the middle of their starting staff. <\/p>\n

Edwin D\u00edaz is a sore subject for Mets fans right now after his departure in free agency<\/a>, but he\u2019s also a cautionary tale when it comes to the World Baseball Classic. In 2023, the ex-Mets closer suffered a season-ending knee injury while celebrating Puerto Rico\u2019s win over the Dominican Republic, a debilitating blow to the Mets\u2019 roster.<\/p>\n

That was a freak injury, but it\u2019s a reminder that players participating in the WBC are exposing themselves to in-game action \u2014\u00a0in a postseason-like atmosphere \u2014\u00a0earlier than their MLB teammates who continue ramping up slowly at big-league camp.<\/p>\n

Another way of looking at this news is it\u2019s an exciting and unique opportunity for those pitchers to get ready to hit the ground running ahead of Opening Day. That\u2019s especially pertinent with McLean who only has 48 big-league innings under his belt. McLean and Holmes will be on a roster with other stars competing against the best of the best, a chance to be a sponge and find new ways to get better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two key pieces of the Mets\u2019 starting rotation will be pitching in the World Baseball Classic next spring.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-354522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}