As New York Mets pitcher Clay Holmes is the team's opening day starter, there could be some surprise since it's his first season with the ballclub coming off a few years for the New York Yankees where he was a reliever. While Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was confident in Holmes to have the honor of the Opening Day starter, it does come off an impressive spring training stint with his new team.

In the three starts this spring for New York, Holmes threw nine and two-thirds scoreless innings with 13 strikeouts and four walks. On the podcast “The Show” with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman, Holmes would be asked about why the transition is going so well after a strong spring.

“Yeah. I mean, first off, you said it, it's three starts, it's early,” Holmes said. “But I think for me, the biggest part is, you know, I know when I signed here, there was a plan in place. And as far as my throwing progression, pitch mix, you know, all those things. And having that early on, kind of knowing what I needed to do, I wanted to do, and having that mapped out has been to me, a key part of where I am right now.”

“I definitely feel there's a really good foundation as far as we're working with, you know, with the workload building up, with the pitch mix,” Holmes continued. “At this point, it's just a matter of getting more the game reps than miles, and seeing batters two or three times and seeing how it all, you know, unfolds from here. But there's a really good foundation right now, and I'm excited to keep building off of it.”

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After the Mets signed Holmes to a $38 million contract worth three years, it could have been an interesting signing at the time since he was known to be a relief pitcher for the Yankees. However, there were some feelers thrown out about him starting which he fooled around with the idea in his last season with his previous team.

“It was just one of those things that kind of organically started unfolding throughout the year last year,” Holmes said. “At the end, I started mixing a couple more pitches, the four-seam, I was messing around with the change up…And it was one of those things where, you know, that stuff started organically happening basically because, I was starting to evolve more as a pitcher. I knew I was about to evolve a little more, and there was some early interest on about starting, and I was like ‘You know what, if I want to expand my arsenal a little bit, and there's an opportunity here, man, let's go for it.'”

“I think this side of the pitching, it's a little more game planning, a little more analytical, strategic, I think that excites me,” Holmes continued. “And that's a little bit more probably my personality, and I think all those things combined, especially the opportunity here with the Mets, to me, it was something that I wanted to sign up for and glad to be here.”

Holmes looks to excel in his first season with the Mets as the team has championship aspirations.