PORT ST. LUCIE — Clay Holmes knew the day would arrive, but this soon?
The Mets pitcher — sporting a neatly trimmed beard — indicated he was caught by surprise Friday to learn his former team, the Yankees, had eliminated a long-standing rule prohibiting facial hair.
“Everyone always talked about the day will probably come, but it felt like a day far off,” said Holmes, who is scheduled to start and face three ups (meaning at least pitching into the third inning) in the Mets’ spring training opener on Saturday. “It’s surprising that it’s here and I think it’s probably something the players have wanted.”
Though he now wears a beard, Holmes said it’s something that was never a big deal for him when he played for the Yankees.
The right-hander arrived to the Mets on a three-year contract worth $38 million in the offseason.
Holmes recalled the need to change his look after arriving to the Yankees in a trade with the Pirates in 2021.
“It was a thing for me, when I got traded over I had long hair and a big beard and I shaved it off,” Holmes said.
But Holmes said the mandate also served the purpose of reminding him he wasn’t in Pittsburgh any longer.
“There’s something about it — a physical, tangible thing,” Holmes said. “And like, ‘I’m with the Yankees now, [the beard] is gone.’ It kind of makes things a little more real.”
Holmes was asked who among his former Yankees teammates is most likely to grow a beard now that the policy has been changed.
“I would say [Carlos] Rodón,” Holmes said. “He already has a mustache.”
Carlos Mendoza is ready for his team to begin the Grapefruit League season.
The Mets’ opener is Saturday against the Astros at Clover Park, with Holmes as the scheduled starting pitcher.
Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso are among the starters who will play.
“We were ready to play games a few days ago,” Mendoza said. “Now we get to see some of them in full uniform, against real competition. You are facing different arms, you are not facing your own teammates. You get to play baseball and I am excited about that.”
David Peterson pitched two innings of live batting practice and surrendered a homer to Alonso.
Tylor Megill also pitched two innings.
