Diamondbacks Claim Grant Holman
The Diamondbacks have claimed right-hander Grant Holman off waivers from the Athletics, per a team announcement. Holman was designated for assignment by the A’s last week to make room for Aaron Civale on the club’s 40-man roster. Southpaw A.J. Puk was placed on the 60-day injured list to make room for Holman on the 40-man roster.
Holman, 26 in May, was a sixth-round pick by the A’s back in 2021 and made his MLB debut in 2024. That first taste of MLB action went fairly well, as he pitched to a 4.00 ERA (100 ERA+) with a solid 3.87 FIP across 18 appearances, striking out 22.0% of his opponents despite an elevated 12.3% walk rate. It was a good debut overall and seemed to portend a larger role with the A’s in 2025, but things unfortunately did not work out that way. While he did make more appearances in 2025, they weren’t especially effective as he wound up posting a lackluster 5.09 ERA in 23 innings of work. His peripherals weren’t much better, as he posted a 4.66 FIP and his strikeout rate fell to 16.5%.
Perhaps he would’ve gotten more of a look at the big league level had injuries not gotten in the way, but rotator cuff tendinitis sidelined him for the majority of the 2025 campaign. He threw just 32 1/3 innings between the majors and minors in total, though his 9 1/3 scoreless frames at Triple-A with a 31.0% strikeout rate did suggest there could be some upside in Holmes’s profile if he can just stay healthy long enough to reach it. Regardless, the A’s had seen enough and cut him loose earlier this week as they beefed up their pitching staff with more veteran additions.
Still, Holman’s upside was intriguing enough for the Diamondbacks to the roll the dice on him. That’s an understandable decision to make for the club given their need for help in the bullpen this year with both Puk and Justin Martinez set to start the year on the injured list as they rehab from elbow surgeries. Puk will be back sooner than Martinez, having undergone UCL revision surgery rather than full Tommy John, but even he is expected back at some point in June at the earliest. That gives the Diamondbacks a few months where they’ll need to patch together a bullpen using veterans like Michael Soroka and Paul Sewald as well as youngsters like Kade Strowd and Andrew Hoffmann. Holman figures to be part of that latter group, and will compete for a role in the Opening Day bullpen for the club during Spring Training. Should he miss out on a roster spot to open the season, he’ll head to Triple-A and join players like Philip Abner and Juan Morillo in the mix for a call-up when injuries or roster churn necessitate it.
A’s Designate Grant Holman, Mitch Spence For Assignment
The Athletics announced they’ve designated right-handers Mitch Spence and Grant Holman for assignment. They needed a pair of 40-man roster spots to finalize their one-year free agent contracts with reliever Scott Barlow and starter Aaron Civale, each of which has been made official.
As MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald noted last week, the A’s didn’t have any obvious candidates to begin the season on the 60-day injured list. Infielder Zack Gelof is their only player known to be delayed entering camp after he underwent shoulder surgery in September. Gelof seems likely to open the season on the 10-day injured list, but the A’s would only place him on the 60-day version if they didn’t expect him to be ready for action by the end of May. They evidently don’t want to close that door, leaving them with no choice but to DFA two players to finalize their free agent pickups.
Holman and Spence end up being the roster casualties. The 25-year-old Holman was a sixth-round draft choice in 2021. He’s a Berkeley product who has thrown 38 2/3 MLB innings over the past two seasons. Holman has posted a 4.66 earned run average with a modest 18.8% strikeout rate at the MLB level. He missed the majority of last year with rotator cuff tendinitis.
Spence was a Rule 5 pick out of the Yankees system two years ago. He was reasonably impressive as a rookie, eating 151 1/3 innings with a 4.58 ERA behind an above-average 48.4% ground-ball rate. Spence entered year two as a potential back-end starter but failed to win a rotation spot out of camp. He spent the majority of the season in long relief and was optioned to Triple-A around the All-Star Break. Spence was recalled in September and finished the season with a 5.10 ERA across 84 2/3 big league innings.
The A’s have five days to trade Holman and Spence or place them on waivers. They each have a couple minor league options remaining and stand a decent chance of getting claimed, especially now that many other teams have a roster spot or two with which to play now that the 60-day IL has reopened.
A’s Select Carlos Cortes
The A’s have selected the contract of outfielder Carlos Cortes from Triple-A Las Vegas and immediately optioned him back to Vegas, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s now on the 40-man roster but is not yet getting a call to the major leagues for his debut. Right-hander Grant Holman was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Cortes, 28, was a 2018 third-rounder with the Mets. He became a minor league free agent following the 2024 season and signed a minor league contract with the A’s back in November. The unusual nature of today’s addition to the 40-man roster and immediate option back to Triple-A suggests that Cortes may have had an opt-out in his contract.
The Athletics’ signing of Cortes has worked out well so far. He’s turned in a terrific .321/.418/.603 slash (140 wRC+) in 299 plate appearances thus far in Triple-A. Cortes’ 16 home runs tie a career-high, and his 13.7% strikeout rate is an even match with his career-low 13.7% strikeout rate. He’s been on a tear of late, including a Pacific Coast League Player of the Week nod in late June (on the heels of a week in which he recorded back-to-back four-hit games). Over his past 30 games, Cortes boasts a ridiculous .403/.500/.773 batting line.
That huge production and his selection to the 40-man roster now has Cortes on the cusp of a potential big league debut. He’s played the outfield corners exclusively this season. The A’s are generally set there for the time being, with Lawrence Butler in right and Tyler Soderstrom handling left field on most days. Cortes could eventually emerge as a bench option, particularly if the A’s wind up trading veteran bench players Gio Urshela and/or Miguel Andujar before this month’s deadline.
Holman, 25, was placed on the 15-day IL in mid-June due to tendinitis in his rotator cuff. He’s pitched 23 2/3 innings for the A’s this season and yielded a 5.09 ERA with a 16.5% strikeout rate, an 8.7% walk rate and a 43.4% ground-ball rate. He’s tossed a total of 38 2/3 MLB frames dating back to last year’s debut and has a 4.66 ERA in that time. Holman posted a dazzling 0.55 ERA in 48 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A last season and has fired 9 1/3 shutout innings in Triple-A this year. The move to the 60-day IL doesn’t reset his timetable; he’s already been out close to a month and will now be eligible to return on Aug. 18.
José Leclerc Shut Down With Lat Strain
6:18pm: Leclerc will be shut down from throwing for an undermined amount of time, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. He’ll go for a second opinion next week and seems to be in for an extended absence.
5:00pm: The Athletics announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported promotion of prospect Nick Kurtz, which is now official. They also recalled pitchers Grant Holman and Hogan Harris. In corresponding moves, they optioned infielder Max Muncy and left-hander Jacob Lopez, as well as placing righty José Leclerc on the 15-day injured list with a right lat strain.
Leclerc was put into last night’s contest but departed after just seven pitches due to shoulder soreness. Manager Mark Kotsay told reporters, including Jessica Kleinschmidt of Baseball America, that it was more of a strain than soreness.
That makes today’s IL stint fairly unsurprising but it’s still unwelcome for the A’s. Leclerc was the club’s big offseason bullpen investment, as they gave him $10MM on a one-year deal this winter. Throughout his career, he has generally been able to rack up punchouts, even if he gives out a high number of free passes. At this point, he has 369 1/3 major league innings with a 3.34 earned run average, 30.8% strikeout rate and 13.1% walk rate.
He’s off to a rough start so far this year but it’s only nine innings and it’s possible that the shoulder has been bothering him even before this IL placement. His fastball is averaging 94.2 miles per hour this year, a drop from last year’s 95.3 mph. All his other pitches are down by similar amounts.
The A’s surely hoped that he would be a key setup guy for closer Mason Miller but the early results have been shaky and he’s now going to be out of action for at least a couple of weeks. Guys like Tyler Ferguson and Justin Sterner have been given some leverage work early on and will try to hold onto those roles while Leclerc is out.
Photo courtesy of Joe Nicholson, Imagn Images
A’s Option Esteury Ruiz, J.T. Ginn
The A’s optioned several names to Triple-A Las Vegas last night, including outfielder Esteury Ruiz, rotation hopeful J.T. Ginn, infielder Darell Hernaiz, and righties Elvis Alvarado and Grant Holman. Infielder Alejo Lopez and lefty Matt Krook, both former big leaguers in camp on non-roster deals, were also reassigned to minor league camp. All of those cuts were announced by the team.
Ruiz, 26, was the Athletics’ primary center fielder in 2023 and swiped a gaudy 67 bases that season but did so while batting only .254/.309/.345 in 132 games (497 plate appearances). Though he was one of several key players acquired in the Athletics’ slate of rebuild-focused trades — regrettably coming over in a three-way deal that sent star catcher William Contreras, whom the A’s could’ve kept, to the Brewers — Ruiz has fallen a ways down the team’s depth chart since that original acquisition.
Injury played a role in his drop down the pecking order, as he missed the bulk of the 2024 campaign with a wrist strain. Ruiz logged 29 games and 65 plate appearances in the majors and delivered only a feeble .200/.270/.382 output at the plate. He hit .345/.425/.596 in 73 minor league plate appearances last year, but he’s long had eye-catching numbers in the upper minors that haven’t carried over to MLB, where he’s a .243/.297/.343 hitter in 598 plate appearances. Ruiz didn’t do himself any favors this spring, hitting .121/.171/.152 in 35 trips to the plate during Cactus League play.
The A’s locked Lawrence Butler up on a long-term extension and saw JJ Bleday turn in a breakout performance at the plate last season. That leaves two of their three outfield spots spoken for in the long-term. Bleday is miscast as a center fielder, so perhaps there’s room for Ruiz to work his way back into that role, but prospects like Colby Thomas, Denzel Clarke and Henry Bolte are all on the cusp of MLB readiness as well. At least for the early stages of the 2025 campaign, it looks like the A’s will go with a left field platoon of Seth Brown and Miguel Andujar.
In the rotation, Ginn heads back to Triple-A on the heels of a tough spring. The righty’s final outing was excellent — four innings of one-run ball with seven punchouts — but he still served up 13 runs (11 earned) in 13 innings while walking 12.5% of his opponents. The 25-year-old is a former second-round pick whom the A’s acquired in the trade sending Chris Bassitt to the Mets. He was hit relatively hard between Double-A and Triple-A last year but turned in a decent blend of strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates (21.2%, 8.8% and 54.1%, respectively). He held his own with a 4.24 ERA in his first 34 MLB frames last summer as well.
With Ginn being sent out, it increasingly appears as though the Athletics’ season-opening rotation will include Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs, JP Sears, Osvaldo Bido and Mitch Spence. A late injury could always change that, and the A’s still have one possible rotation alternative in camp in the form of Joey Estes, who’s had a decent Cactus League run this spring.
Hernaiz, acquired in the trade of Cole Irvin to Baltimore, became a long shot for the roster after the A’s signed both Gio Urshela and Luis Urias to major league contracts this winter. Jacob Wilson and Zack Gelof are lined up in the middle infield, while Urias and Urshela can handle third base and move around to multiple infield positions. Hernaiz hit well in Triple-A last year (.331/.376/.493) but mustered only a .192/.261/.242 line in his first 135 MLB plate appearances. His spring output wasn’t much more encouraging — .194/.302/.306 in 43 plate appearances — so he’ll had back to the minors for more work.
A’s Select Grant Holman
The Athletics announced a quartet of roster moves, including the news that right-hander Grant Holman‘s contract has been selected from Triple-A Las Vegas. Star slugger Brent Rooker is also back from the paternity list, and right-hander Will Klein and infielder Armando Alvarez were both optioned to Triple-A to create the two needed opening on the 26-man roster.
Holman will be making his Major League debut whenever he makes his first official appearance for the A’s. A sixth-round pick in the 2021 draft, Holman has worked exclusively as a reliever since he was promoted to Double-A in 2023, and his results this season have been spectacular. The righty has a tiny 0.55 ERA over 48 2/3 combined innings at Double-A (19 1/3 IP) and Triple-A (29 1/3 IP), along with a strong 29% strikeout rate and a more modest 11.83% walk rate. It should be noted that Holman has received a lot of batted-ball luck in the form of a .174 BABIP against Triple-A competition, but allowing just one homers in 29 1/3 frames of Pacific Coast League action is quite impressive.
MLB Pipeline rates Holman as the 21st-best prospect in Oakland’s farm system, and he received a 60-grade on his 95mph fastball. Beyond that top offering, Holman also has a decent slider and a rather lightly-used splitter. It makes for a pretty solid arsenal for a reliever, and Pipeline’s scouting report observes that “much of Holman’s step forward this season has come simply as a result of being healthy and getting regular reps,” following two seasons of elbow and shoulder problems.
There’s plenty of intrigue in Holman’s arsenal, and the 24-year-old should get opportunities for an Athletics team that continues to evaluate young talent as part of its rebuild. Mason Miller has deservedly drawn most of the headlines, but Oakland’s bullpen has been pretty decent as a whole this season, and Holman will become the latest rookie arm to try and earn higher-leverage work.