{"id":811338,"date":"2026-07-20T02:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T02:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811338\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T02:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T02:14:11","slug":"white-sox-showing-interest-in-clay-holmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811338\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox Showing Interest In Clay Holmes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White Sox have maintained a one-game lead over the Guardians for first place in the AL Central, and it looking increasingly likely that the Sox will look to build on their success by adding some help at the deadline.\u00a0 To this end, USA Today\u2019s Bob Nightengale<\/a> writes that Mets starter Clay Holmes<\/a> is on Chicago\u2019s radar, as White Sox special assistant Nick Hostetler will \u201ckeep tabs\u201d on Holmes during his minor league rehab assignment.<\/p>\n

That rehab assignment has officially yet to get underway, as Holmes\u2019 planned outing with high-A Brooklyn was canceled due to poor weather.\u00a0 According to MLB.com\u2019s Anthony DiComo<\/a>, multiple scouts and evaluators from rival teams in attendance to see Holmes pitch, but Holmes instead threw around 45 pitches during a live bullpen session that was naturally limited to just Mets personnel.<\/p>\n

Holmes\u2019 fibula was fractured back on May 15 when the Yankees\u2019 Spencer Jones<\/a> drilled a line drive off Holmes\u2019 right leg.\u00a0 The right-hander was able to avoid surgery, and is on track to meet the initial timeline of a return at some point in August, though when exactly Holmes will be ready is a major question looming over the Mets\u2019 trade deadline plans.\u00a0 Saturday\u2019s canceled game throws another delay into the works, and it decreases the chance that Holmes will be activated from the 60-day IL before the August 3 deadline.<\/p>\n

This wouldn\u2019t necessarily prevent a trade, of course, as teams may feel okay with taking the plunge on an injured Holmes if they like what they see in his rehab outings.\u00a0 DiComo cited the example of last summer\u2019s trade that sent Shane Bieber<\/a> from the Guardians to the Blue Jays, as Cleveland was able to land a notable pitching prospect (Khal Stephen<\/a>) even though Bieber hadn\u2019t pitched since April 2024 due to a Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n

The Mets should therefore be able to acquire some kind of interesting trade return, if they choose to move Holmes at all.\u00a0 The righty is in the second season of his three-year, $38MM contract, but he is expected to opt out of the final year of that deal and test free agency even though he has spent over two months on the IL.\u00a0 This effectively makes Holmes a rental player, which will limit what other teams will offer New York in trade talks.\u00a0 However, Holmes has said that he likes playing in Queens and is interested in discussing an extension<\/a>, so the Mets are expected to explore that possibility while also fielding trade offers.<\/p>\n

Eyebrows were raised when the Mets signed Holmes with the plan of converting him to starting pitching, but the experiment ended up being a success.\u00a0 Holmes posted a 3.53 ERA over 165 2\/3 innings in 2025 and then a 2.39 ERA in his first 52 2\/3 innings of 2026 before Jones\u2019 fateful comebacker.\u00a0 Holmes\u2019 strikeout numbers have sharply dropped as a starter, but he has continued to keep the ball on the ground (55.8% grounder rate in 2025-26) and he has allowed just 17 home runs in his time in New York.<\/p>\n

A healthy Holmes would boost the rotation of any contender, including the upstart White Sox.\u00a0 Davis Martin<\/a> and Sean Burke<\/a> have both pitched well at the front of the rotation, while the results have been a little more mixed for Anthony Kay<\/a>, Erick Fedde<\/a>, and rookie Noah Schultz<\/a>.\u00a0 The Sox are thin on experience and depth when it comes to their starting options, so the rotation and bullpen figure to be Chicago\u2019s top target areas as the deadline approaches.<\/p>\n

Chicago GM Chris Getz said back in early June<\/a> that the team\u2019s focus remains on the big picture in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, but \u201cwe know where we are in the standings, both within the division and Wild Card, and we\u2019re monitoring it\u2026.if there\u2019s chances to really add to this group, we\u2019re going to do that.\u201d\u00a0 Since the Sox have kept on winning since Getz made those statements over six weeks ago, it would seem like the front office will indeed look to make some upgrades, even if a deadline buying splurge isn\u2019t happening.<\/p>\n

The Athletic\u2019s Ken Rosenthal recently wrote<\/a> that the White Sox \u201care willing to be relatively aggressive on players under club control, but are not inclined to overpay for rentals, according to a person briefed on their plans.\u201d\u00a0 Holmes doesn\u2019t technically fit this model given the likelihood that he\u2019ll trigger his opt-out clause, which could limit Chicago\u2019s ability or desire to meet the Mets\u2019 asking price.\u00a0 With many teams involved and the continued uncertainty over his health situation, other pitchers may be likelier trade targets for Chicago than Holmes, but that shouldn\u2019t stop the Sox from doing their due diligence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White Sox have maintained a one-game lead over the Guardians for first place in the AL Central,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,199099,591,85],"class_list":["post-811338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-clay-holmes","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}