The Athletics announced that right-hander Grant Holmes has been outrighted off the 40-man roster, and been assigned to Triple-A Las Vegas. Such a move was necessary to remove Holmes from the 40-man since the 26-year-old is out of minor league options.
Holmes was the 22nd overall pick of the 2014 draft, and a regular on top-100 prospect lists for his first few minor league seasons. Originally selected by the Dodgers, he was dealt to Oakland as part of a deadline-day swap in 2016, as the A’s picked up Holmes, Frankie Montas, and Jharel Cotton from Los Angeles in exchange for Josh Reddick and Rich Hill.
Arguably the best prospect of that three-player package at the time, Holmes has yet to reach the majors due to a lot of inconsistent performances down on the farm. Holmes has a 4.43 ERA over 592 2/3 career minor league innings, including a 7.61 ERA over 71 frames at the Triple-A level. Some shoulder problems have impacted him along the way, and Holmes was of course one of countless players whose careers were set back by the canceled 2020 minor league season. With outright waivers now cleared, Holmes will try again in Triple-A and see if he can finally get on track.
The move opens up a spot on Oakland’s 40-man roster, which forecasts that the Athletics will be selecting at least one of their non-roster invites to the big league roster. Eric Thames, Justin Grimm, Dany Jimenez, and Austin Pruitt are among the notable names in camp on minor league deals, and any or all have a case to break camp, so the A’s might need to carve out some more 40-man space between now and Opening Day. Injuries could play a role, as both of Deolis Guerra and Brent Honeywell Jr. could be headed for the 60-day injured list.
Holmes is talented just inconsistent but if he gets on the right track Grant could be a nice surprise.
Dudes got the hair, can he show them what’s what?
I know I am biased: both as a former marine & a Yankee fan. But I don’t care for that look in a ballplayer. To each their own, uh?
As former upper management, I don’t care for the overweight, bald, cigar smoking appearance of our so called leaders. Yes, to each their own.
No diss Duck, I could play guitar for ZZ Top the way I look.
at age 26, time is of the essence now….to get on that track.
Talented but inconsistent – you could say that about tons of guys who never make it in the major leagues. Holmes has a decent arm but is nothing special. If he moved to the bullpen full time and maxs out on his fastball and gets it up into the high 90’s maybe he can have a future.
Also pitching in Vegas doesn’t help much
Mets??
What I noticed is that not many dodger prospects when dealt really pan out as expected. Makes me think that these experts overrate dodger prospects.
Just about every one they insist on keeping pans out though.
Yeah that’s because we keep the ones we feel best about and look how that’s turning out…
Its to do with press/media. The larger markets have more media people covering them, therefore more hype behind prospects. Yankees prospects rarely pan out, especially the ones they trade. Almost like we should stop making top 100 lists or something because they’re too influenced by market size, not talent.
That’s not necessarily true. MLB Pipeline just released their farm system rankings. Although not my favorite prospect site, they’re arguably the most popular given it’s an off-shoot of mlb.com and the most widely available source. A good portion of their top 10 farms were made up of small to mid market teams like the Pirates, Orioles, Ray’s, Marlins, Mariners, Royals, and Tigers. Only massive market team in their top 10 was the Dodgers.
Nice comment. Unfortunately, small-minded jealousy and tribalism produce some pretty bizarre generalizations on this site on a daily basis. Thanks for setting the record straight.
Yeah , just strange. This guy continues to insist that front offices in mlb rely on local media markets for info on minor league players as if they don’t have scouts or conduct their own evaluations. Bud, it’s 2022!
Obviously, one can literally pick out numerous overrated prospects from all organizations , big or small markets.
Dodger fans would love to have a redo on the Josh Fields trade (Yordan Alvarez) and the Tony Watson trade (O’Neil Cruz) and get those over-rated prospects back.
Outside of the Grant Homes deal that included Frankie Montas (originally a White Sox prospect). There have really only been four deals where Andrew Friedman traded a top prospect in their system.
The Yu Darvish deal included Willie Calhoun, AJ Alexa and Brendon Davis. All three are in the majors or on track for the majors this year (Calhoun and Alexy with the Rangers and Davis with the Angels)
The Manny Machado deal only included one top prospect (Yusniel Diaz) which isn’t looking too good for the Orioles.
The Mookie Betts deal was headlined by a major leaguer in Alex Verdugo and a former Reds prospect (Jeter Downs).
The Scherzer/Turner deal is too recent to determine who won but included a Dodger farmhand and a former Reds draftee (Keibert Ruiz and Josiah Gray).
Just about all the other so called over-rated top prospects in the Dodgers system had success in LA. This list includes Joc Pederson, Corey Seager, Julio Urias, Will Smith, Cody Bellinger, Walker Buehler, Dustin May, Tony Gonselin and hopefully Gavin Lux. About the only major bust the Dodgers have had that had the Top Prospect label was Yadier Alvarez and the eventually just released him.
Stop trying to make him a starter. He doesn’t have enough pitches to be a starter. Put him in the bullpen to be a set up man. One of the problems with A’s minor league management not producing enough relievers.
When you don’t have high caliber starters, that tends to happen.
A’s have had top caliber arms just never progressed them very far. Too many have the power arms but never had the other pitches a starter needs. Luzardo is a good example of this great fastball but his other pitches never got right.
The “secret” to Keith Law’s “scouting” is to merely predict all pitching prospects end up in the bullpen. It’s definitely a lazy cop-out, but it’ll certainly prop up that particular batting average as there is more than a little truth to it.
^ this all day.
It’s possible puk, jefferies, Holmes may end up bullpen pieces but they all have extensive injury history. Same with kaprelian. The next wave of supposed top pitching prospects, that may never be. And luzardo too in the disappointing group who they gave up for a couple months of starling marte
Its always better to draft starting pitching then do what the A’s do and hope for a miracle from a starter with arm trouble. Kaprelain will probably turn out to be a solid innings eater type starter but not a Ace. Jeffries could still turn around. Puk looking more like a reliever not a starter.
Stinks we never got to see Grant Holmes pitch to Yan Gomes
More like “Grace” Holmes with that hair, amiright?!
I’ll see myself out.
You would think the A’s would overhaul their minor league development at some point with the number of pitching injuries and failure to develop the talent that has been in their system. Can anyone name the last A’s pitcher drafted by the A’s but not drafted in the first round to have a WAR over 1.0 in a season?
No more waiting around Athletics! You need to trade Sean Manaea right now!