Chicago Cubs GM says team is interested in bringing back 2026 acquisition

The Chicago Cubs thought they were getting their ideal pickup this last trade deadline when they acquired groundball specialist Clay Holmes from the New York Mets, along with outfielder Tyrone Taylor.

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The deal cost the Cubs infielder Jefferson Rojas, one of their top prospects and most sought-after young assets. But Holmes boasted a career groundball rate of over than 62% and he seemed to be such an ideal fit for a team with a historically elite-level infield defense. Although just finishing a rehab assignment following a freak right fibula fracture, the thought was that Holmes would be good to go when coming aboard.

For awhile, the Holmes-Cubs pairing was every bit as good as anticipated. Through his first five starts with his new team, the veteran posted a 1.55 ERA. Over his final four starts of the regular season, though, things got ugly. He posted an 8.24 ERA and failed to even make a playoff appearance before Chicago was eliminated by the San Diego Padres in the Wild Card series.

Holmes then became a free agent after turning down his $12 million player option for 2027.

Holmes is still an ideal fit

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However, may feel that he’s still an ideal fit for the Cubs, despite the poor end to his short Chicago tenure. General Manager Carter Hawkins actually just came out and said this in comments at the GM meetings in Las Vegas. He also offered a bit of notable news in saying that the team is interested in bringing him back.

“Clay’s got great stuff,” Hawkins told reporters. “He puts the ball on the ground. Outside of the freak injuries that he’s dealt with in the lower half, he’s logged a bunch of innings since he’s moved into a starter’s role. I think he’s a really good fit with our club in terms of the fact that we have such good infield defense, so there’s some nice synergy there. He’s definitely someone we’re interested in.”

Expected to land a contract in the 2-3 year range at anywhere from $17 million to $24 million per season, Holmes is also a free agent acquisition that wouldn’t break the bank for a Cubs team in need of multiple starting pitchers.

What went wrong in 2026?

In his end-of-season press conference, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer ruminated on Holmes and what may have happened to him late in the season

“In so many ways, Clay fits our team really well,” Hoyer said. “He puts the ball on the ground. Even with us, it was a high-60s ground-ball percentage. We convert the most groundballs into outs. We thought it was a perfect fit. He had some really good starts in August. He had a nice run in August for a while. He sort of tailed off.

“How much of that was because he came back from injury? How much of that was just the length of the season? Obviously, he wasn’t pitching his best baseball towards the end.”

Bringing Holmes back seems to make a lot of sense, if the Cubs are reasonably sure that his late-season dip was a fluke. Actually, everything—from contract to team fit—would seem to point to Holmes being a smart re-acquisition. With their great need, Chicago will need as much pitching as it can get.

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Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-clay-holmes-free-agent-gm-2027/