PORT ST. LUCIE — Clay Holmes knew the day would arrive, but this soon?

The Mets pitcher, with a neatly trimmed beard, expressed his surprise at finding out on Friday that the Yankees, his former team, had removed a rule prohibiting facial hair.

“Everyone always speculated that this day would eventually come, but it seemed like a distant possibility,” stated Holmes, who is set to start and face a minimum of three batters (meaning he will pitch at least into the third inning) in the Mets’ first spring training game on Saturday. “The fact that it’s happening now is unexpected, and I believe it’s something the players have desired.”

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 a certain significance to it — a concrete, physical aspect,” Holmes explained. “It’s like, ‘Now that I’m with the Yankees, [the beard] has to go.’ It adds a sense of reality to things.”

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.