Brewers Among Teams Pursuing Clay Holmes

The widespread expectation is that the Mets will trade righty Clay Holmes prior to today’s deadline. They’re in talks with several teams, including the Brewers, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand hears similarly and reemphasizes that Holmes is expected to be traded within the next six hours.

Milwaukee was among the teams in on Tarik Skubal but ultimately didn’t pull the trigger on acquiring the two-time Cy Young Award winner. The Brewers were reportedly willing to take on the remainder of Skubal’s $32MM salary, so the roughly $3.96MM that remains on Holmes’ $13MM salary for the current season shouldn’t be an issue. That’s of note, given that the Mets don’t appear inclined to pay down the salary on their more appealing short-term veterans.

Holmes obviously isn’t likely to match the results from Skubal, but he’d be a needed arm for a rotation that has lost Brandon Woodruff and Quinn Priester for the season. The Brewers’ staff is still fronted by Cy Young favorite Jacob Misiorowski, and they’ll soon get Kyle Harrison back from a minor forearm/elbow issue, too. The staff is currently being rounded out by Logan Henderson, Brandon Sproat, Shane Drohan and Robert Gasser, but several of those young arms come with workload concerns. Drohan has already topped last year’s innings total. Gasser, who’s in his first full season back from UCL surgery, is well on his way. Henderson will do the same at some point in the next month or so.

Holmes hasn’t pitched in a big league game since May. He’s been on the mend from a fractured fibula suffered when he was struck by a comebacker during his ninth start of the season. The 33-year-old signed a three-year, $38MM contract with the Mets in the 2024-25 offseason and converted from a late-inning reliever with the Yankees back into a starter. It’s one of the few things to have gone right for the Mets over the past couple seasons. Holmes has pitched 218 1/3 innings since signing and logged a 3.26 ERA, 18.9% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate and 55.8% grounder rate.

That huge ground-ball rate has to be particularly appealing to a Brewers club whose infield is rife with plus defenders. Brice Turang, Cooper Pratt and Joey Ortiz are all plus defenders who ought to only enhance one of Holmes’ greatest strengths.

Holmes’ contract muddies his trade value to at least some extent. He’s signed for $12MM next season, but that year on his contract is a player option. Any team that acquires Holmes knows he’ll either pitch well and opt for free agency at season’s end or struggle (or fall to another injury) and exercise a player option the new team may no longer want. That downside does temper some of the trade value Holmes would otherwise have, but a deal still seems inevitable. Interest is strong, Holmes himself has said there have been no extension talks, and because they’re a luxury tax payor, the Mets would only recoup a pick between the fourth and fifth rounds of next year’s draft if they tried the qualifying offer route with Holmes. They should be able to command a better return than that on the trade front.