Clay Holmes will leave the World Baseball Classic to prepare for the upcoming Mets season after discussions with Team USA officials indicated he wouldn’t get the necessary innings for his first start. Despite pitching three scoreless innings against Great Britain, the team’s need for pitchers in elimination games made it challenging to guarantee him more innings. Manager Carlos Mendoza noted the situation was fluid and emphasized the difficulties of balancing player needs with tournament demands. Holmes is set to pitch in a piggyback role behind Kodai Senga on Friday.
