New York Mets Minor League Report: Clay Holmes Wraps Rehab With New-Look St. Lucie

[Tom Gatto]

Ready or not, Clay Holmes is on his way back to the New York Mets. He’ll spend the rest of this week waiting to see when and for whom his next start will be.

The right-hander completed an abbreviated minor league rehab assignment Tuesday with four scoreless innings for Single-A St. Lucie at Dunedin. He allowed two hits and two walks and struck out three. He threw 59 pitches, his biggest workload in his three rehab outings, with 37 for strikes. MLB.com reported that Holmes reached 94.1 mph with his sinker.

As of now, he’s lined up to make his next start Sunday, one day ahead of the Aug. 3 MLB trade deadline, with his pitch count around 70. If he reports no problems after Tuesday’s start, trade talks figure to move to full steam ahead, and Sunday may never come into play; either the Mets will deal him before then, or they’ll hold back one of their top trade assets to extract maximum value.

Holmes pitched for a St. Lucie squad that was overhauled earlier in the week amid a series of late-season promotions by the organization. Ten players were called up from the FCL Mets on Monday, and six of them were in the starting lineup Tuesday. All six contributed to a 14-6 victory.

The full list of promotions, per the affiliates’ respective transactions pages:

To Syracuse from Binghamton (1): LHP Jonathan Santucci (No. 8 prospect in Grand Central Mets’ Top 20)

To Binghamton from Brooklyn (2): RHP Noah Hall, SS/2B Mitch Voit (No. 7)

To Brooklyn from St. Lucie (6): RHP Joel Diaz, OF Randy Guzman (No. 14), SS/3B Antonio Jimenez (No. 17), C Chase Meggers, RHP Emilio Obispo, INF/OF Trey Snyder

To St. Lucie from FCL Mets (10): OF Bohan Adderley, OF Kuhio Aloy, INF Dylan Carey, INF Vladi Gomez, OF Aiden Robbins, C Yovanny Rodriguez, INF Kooper Schulte, OF John Smith III, C Ryan Tayman, OF Wyatt Vincent. Robbins, Tayman, Aloy, Smith and Schulte were all taken by the Mets in the MLB Draft earlier this month. 

Elsewhere in the organization:

Syracuse lost to Rochester 6-5. Ronny Mauricio and Nick Morabito (No. 5) homered in the loss. Mike Tauchman, still on rehab, went 0-for-5. Tobias Myers gave up five runs in the second inning.

Voit’s Binghamton debut was postponed because of rain in Reading, Pa. The clubs will make up the game Saturday as part of a twilight doubleheader. Game 1 is set for 4:30 p.m. ET.

Brooklyn dropped a 10-6 decision to Winston-Salem. Guzman, Jimenez and Snyder all were in the lineup for the Cyclones. Rehabbing big-leaguer Andy Ibañez had three hits and scored a run.

DSL Mets Blue topped the DSL Cardinals 5-4. Sanchez and Oramas each had two hits and two RBIs. Marquez allowed a run and no hits over three innings. DSL Orange lost 6-5 to DSL Arizona Red. Wandy Asigen (No. 12) hit his first professional home run, a solo shot in the fifth inning.

New York Mets Transactions

• No Roster Moves

Morabito, Mauricio Supply The Offense For Syracuse

The M&M Boys combined for four hits, five RBIs and four runs scored. They started early as they put Syracuse ahead 1-0 in the first. Morabito opened the game with a single and later scored on Mauricio's sacrifice fly.

Rochester answered with five runs in the second against Myers. Four straight singles produced the tying run, a forceout brought home the go-ahead run, a wild pitch made it 3-1, and a two-run double closed out the inning. Myers left after 1 2/3 innings.

Morabito cut into the deficit in the third with a two-run home run to left-center. Mauricio sliced it further in the seventh with a two-run home run to left. Syracuse couldn't do anything after that.

Syracuse Mets Hitting

Player	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K
Nick Morabito	4	3	2	2	1	0
Mike Tauchman	5	0	0	0	0	1
Ronny Mauricio	3	1	2	3	0	0
Christopher Morel	4	0	1	0	0	0
Ryan Clifford	3	0	0	0	1	2
Christian Arroyo	4	0	2	0	0	1
Cristian Pache	3	0	0	0	0	1
MJ Melendez	1	0	0	0	0	0
Hayden Senger	3	0	0	0	0	1
Jihwan Bae	1	0	0	0	0	0
Zack Short	2	1	0	0	1	1
Ben Rortvedt	1	0	0	0	0	0

Syracuse Mets Pitching

Player	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR
Tobias Myers	1 2/3	4	5	5	1	1	0
Matt Seelinger	1 1/3	1	0	0	1	1	0
Matt Turner	2	1	0	0	0	1	0
Dan Hammer	1	2	1	1	2	1	0
Nate Lavender	2	1	0	0	0	3	0

Brooklyn Rally Falls Short

Brooklyn scored two in the eighth and two in the ninth, and it got the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but the Cyclones could not overcome an early deficit. Winston-Salem led 10-2 going into the bottom of the eighth.

A five-run fourth decided the game. Winston-Salem opened with two singles and a walk to load the bases. Starter Daviel Hurtado departed after a line out for the first out. Parker Carlson entered and allowed three straight RBI singles. A forceout scored a fourth run, and a throwing error brought in the fifth run.

Daviel Hurtado walked six over 3 1/3 innings to go with five hits allowed. He struck out three.

Guzman, Jimenez and Snyder all played after their promotions. Guzman singled home a run in the fourth and drew a bases-loaded walk in the ninth. Snyder had two hits and an RBI. Jimenez had a hit and scored a run.

Jacob Reimer (No. 6), on rehab from Double-A Binghamton, added a double and a walk.

Brooklyn Cyclones Hitting

Player	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K
Yonatan Henriquez	4	2	0	0	0	0
Jacob Reimer	4	2	1	0	1	2
Andy Ibáñez	4	1	3	0	1	1
Trey Snyder	5	0	2	1	0	0
Randy Guzman	4	0	1	2	1	2
Ronald Hernandez	5	0	1	1	0	1
Daiverson Gutierrez	4	0	0	0	0	1
Antonio Jimenez	4	1	1	0	0	1
JT Benson	4	0	1	0	0	1

Brooklyn Cyclones Pitching

Player	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR
Daviel Hurtado	3 1/3	5	5	5	6	3	0
Parker Carlson	1 2/3	3	2	1	0	2	0
Hunter Hodges	1	1	1	1	1	2	0
Josh Blum	1	2	2	2	1	1	0
Cristofer Gomez	2	0	0	0	2	4	0

Promoted Players Give St. Lucie A Jolt

The newcomers went right to work. Smith, a 19th-rounder, homered twice in his pro debut, and drove in three runs. Tayman, making his debut after being drafted in the ninth round, homered in his first at-bat, a two-run drive in the second inning, sparking a 4-for-5 night. He also scored three times.

Robbins, in his pro debut after being selected in the third round, drove in two. Rodriguez, Vincent and Schulte each had a hit, and all three scored at least once.

Holdovers Marco Vargas (No. 20) and Elian Peña (No. 4) contributed as well. Vargas was 3-for-5 with three RBIs, while Peña homered in the eighth.

New York reliever Austin Warren made a rehab outing himself. The right-hander followed Holmes and threw a scoreless fifth inning, walking one and striking out one while throwing 13 pitches (eight strikes). He was credited with the win.

The new-look Mets led 8-0 after 5 1/2 innings. Dunedin scored four in the bottom of the sixth against Tyler McLoughlin, who recorded just one out. The Blue Jays scored two more in the ninth against Luis Alvarez for the final margin.

St. Lucie Mets Hitting

Player	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K
Elian Peña	5	2	1	2	1	0
Cole Mathis	3	0	0	1	0	1
Julio Zayas	0	1	0	1	2	0
Marco Vargas	5	1	3	3	1	1
Aiden Robbins	6	0	2	2	0	1
Yovanny Rodriguez	4	2	1	0	1	1
John Smith III	5	2	2	3	0	1
Ryan Tayman	5	3	4	2	0	0
Wyatt Vincent	4	1	1	0	1	2
Kooper Schulte	3	2	1	0	1	2

St. Lucie Mets Pitching

Player	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR
Clay Holmes	4	2	0	0	2	3	0
Austin Warren	1	0	0	0	1	1	0
Tyler McLoughlin	1/3	4	4	4	1	0	0
Ernesto Mercedes	1 2/3	0	0	0	0	4	0
Miguel Mejias	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
Luis Alvarez	1	1	2	2	2	2	0

Top-20 Prospect Performance

1. Jonah Tong: DNP
2. Jack Wenninger: DNP
3. Ryan Clifford: 0-for-3, BB, 2 K
4. Elian Pena: 1-for-5, HR, BB
5. Nick Morabito: 2-for-4, HR, BB
6. Jacob Reimer: 1-for-4, 2B, BB, 2 K
7. Mitch Voit: DNP
8. Jonathan Santucci: DNP
9. Zac Thornton: MLB
10. Chris Suero: DNP
11. Will Watson: DNP
12. Wandy Asigen: 1-for-4, HR, RBI, BB
13. Eli Serrano III: DNP
14. Randy Guzman: 1-for-4, BB, 2 K
15. Dylan Ross: DNP
16. Ryan Lambert: DNP
17. Antonio Jimenez: 1-for-4, K
18. R.J. Gordon: DNP
19. Jonathan Pintaro: DNP
20. Marco Vargas: 3-for-5, 2B, BB, K

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