Clay Holmes injury update: Mets pitcher out 'long time' after hit fractures fibula

The New York Mets' disappointing season took its most disastrous turn yet Friday, May 15 when starting pitcher Clay Holmes suffered a fractured fibula after taking a line drive off his right leg. 

Holmes, 33, will be out "for a long time," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters Friday. New York Yankees rookie Spencer Jones hit a low line drive off Holmes' lower right leg leading off the top of the fourth inning; the ball's exit velocity was 111.1 mph. 

Holmes was examined by an athletic trainer and Mendoza and somewhat remarkably stayed in the game into the fifth. But X-rays revealed the fracture, robbing the Mets of arguably their best starting pitcher in this disappointing season. 

Despite giving up four earned runs in Friday's 5-2 loss to the Yankees, Holmes has a 2.39 ERA this season and has pitched into at least the seventh inning in three of his nine starts this year. The Mets came into Friday 18-25, yet 5-3 when Holmes starts. 

Holmes' injury casts doubt on both his and the Mets' future. Should the club fall further out of the race, Holmes likely would have fetched a significant return on the trade market; now, it is unclear whether he'll be healthy enough to market his wares before the Aug. 3 deadline. 

And while Holmes figured to opt out of the final year of his three-year, $38 million contract and test free agency again, that's under some doubt after this injury, although Holmes likely showed enough before going down to be a prized target on the market this winter.