Jul 7, 2016; Houston, TX, USA; The cap and glove of Oakland Athletics third baseman Danny Valencia (not pictured) in the dugout during the game against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
The Oakland Athletics acquired RHP Grant Holmes from the Los Angeles Dodgers in a deadline deal. What kind of pitcher did they get?
Who Is He?
Holmes was drafted with the 22nd pick of the 2014 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of high school in South Carolina. The Dodgers sent him to their Arizona Rookie League team, and he pitched very well over 7 appearances, 6 starts, there, so they moved him up to their short-season Pioneer League team in Ogden to finish out the year, where he did shuffle a little, but overall showed a ton of promise. On the season in total, his line was 11 games, 10 starts, with a 3.73 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and 13/58 BB/K over 48 1/3 innings. He was noticed by all the major ranking services, as Baseball America had him rated as the #74 prospect in baseball by Baseball America, #95 by MLB.com, and #79 by Baseball Prospectus.
He pitched in the Low-A Midwest League in 2015 with Great Lakes. Holmes made 24 starts, throwing 103 1/3 innings, tallying a 3.14 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, and a 54/117 BB/K ratio. His walks were a bit up, but he was still able to get notice enough to get ranked #72 by Baseball America, #62 by MLB.com, and #40 by Baseball Prospectus.
The Dodgers continued to move Holmes slowly this season, bumping him up to the high-A Cal League, a notorious hitter’s league. Holmes has seen the struggles of the rough environment for pitchers as he’s stayed in the Cal League with Oakland after the trade, and combined so far, he’s at 23 appearances, 21 of them starts, throwing 119 1/3 innings with a 4.75 ERA, 1.49 WHIP, and 46/109 BB/K ratio. Baseball America moved him up to #60, but MLB.com bumped him down to #78, and Baseball Prospectus bumped him down enough that he didn’t make their midseason top 50.
Size/Stature/Delivery Holmes is listed at 6’1 and 215 pounds. He’s a right handed pitcher, though he does hit left handed when he hits. He’s built well and athletic on the mound. Though he’s not 6’4+, he’s built well to handle a heavy workload as a starter with an easy motion that generates high velocity with minimal effort.
He has an easy delivery with a simple leg kick and a hard drive toward the plate. He delivers the ball from a 3/4 arm slot and has a strong follow through. He finishes in a great fielding position as well.
I noted in the games that he struggles at times with his landing point as a lot of his velocity is generated in his powerful legs. When he gets off in his landing spot, he drops his arm slot a touch, and that hurts the movement that he gets on his pitches.
Out of the stretch, Holmes generates the same velocity as from his wind up, though I did note that he has a touch of a hop at the end of his stretch delivery that leaves him a bit exposed if he needs to field a comebacker. Pitches Holmes uses a great fastball that sits 93-95. He touched 100 in high school, but in the games I saw, he touched 98, and from many reports, he has the ability to still touch triple digits in short stints. The fastball works well with a heavy feel, making it a frequent pop-up pitch up in the zone and a ground ball machine low in the zone. Even when he struggled, the fastball is the one pitch he seemed to have consistent feel and control of, though he did tend to miss into the zone when he was missing his landing spot, and losing the movement of his fastball, which gave him the “heavy” feel on his ball, left his fastball easily driven.
His curve is unique in its combination of velocity and drop. He gets the velocity of a slider with the traditional movement of a slower curve ball. It’s absolutely a swing and miss pitch that gets hitters looking foolish. He gets huge drop on the pitch, working best when he starts the pitch around the batter’s upper belt and finishes just under the knees.
Holmes has been building on his change since high school, and it’s been coming along quite a bit. He seems to abandon it when he’s struggling, though, in spite of it having success. The change has great arm deception, coming out just like his fastball, though he is still working to get the movement to be similar to his fastball throughout the zone. He does get great sink action when it’s low in the zone, but higher in the zone is not the same hard plane as his fastball.
He’s got nowhere near the size, but Holmes’ stuff reminds me strongly of A.J. Burnett‘s, especially that curveball/fastball combo. Burnett’s best seasons were when his change actually worked well for him. The Pirates also worked with Burnett late in his career about locating his fastball, and that made a world of difference for him.
Holmes has a lot of the same fire on the mound that I remember in watching Burnett in his early years with the Marlins as well as the ridiculously amazing raw stuff. Holmes has really two routes he could go with his stuff, first being a frontline starter, a la Burnett at his best. The second route would be that of a dominant reliever along the lines of a Brad Lidge, who had a similar fastball/hard curve combination.
Holmes will keep moving up the chain, likely working his way to AA in 2017. I could see the A’s sending him to the Arizona Fall League, similar to Sean Manaea last season, getting more of an idea of what they have on their hands after the trade by challenging Holmes against some of the best prospects in the game that will be part of the AFL. Holmes has strong stuff, and I definitely could see him working his way up as a frontline starter or he could be dominant in the relief role.
