The White Sox aren't waiting around for pitchers to hit the open market healthy. MLB Trade Rumors reported that Chicago is showing real interest in Clay Holmes, the Mets righty who's spent the last two-plus months rehabbing a fractured fibula instead of pitching in meaningful games.
MLB Trade Rumors broke the news that the White Sox are showing interest in Holmes.
Holmes got hurt in mid-May when a Yankees line drive off the bat of Spencer Jones drilled him in the leg, an injury that's kept him off a big-league mound since. Before that, he was quietly having a strong year for New York, transitioning from All-Star closer to a rotation piece with a sub-2.50 ERA across nine starts. That kind of production, paired with rehab timelines lining up around the deadline, is exactly the profile buyers love to gamble on.
A follow-up MLB Trade Rumors report made the interest more concrete, with Chicago described as evaluating the rehabbing Mets righty directly as part of a broader push to add arms before the deadline.
MLB Trade Rumors detailed that the White Sox are looking to add pitching at the deadline and are evaluating Holmes specifically.
This is a classic rebuilder move. Chicago isn't buying a rental for a playoff push, they're scouting a talent evaluation, sending reps to actually watch Holmes throw in his rehab outings rather than trusting a stat line. The Mets, meanwhile, have reportedly kept the door open on an extension with Holmes rather than treating him as an automatic sell, which complicates how motivated they'll actually be to move him before he even returns to a big-league mound.
The wrinkle here is health. Holmes hasn't pitched in the majors since the injury, and any club acquiring him now is betting on a player they can't fully evaluate in live competition before making a trade. If the White Sox are willing to take that risk on a pitcher who was performing at an All-Star level before he got hurt, it says a lot about how thin this year's deadline pitching market is — and how far rebuilding teams will go to find an edge before other buyers even get a healthy look at him.