The Detroit Tigers should not miss the opportunity to strengthen their starting rotation and add an elite arm. There are several options beyond Tarik Skubal, Sonny Gray, Michael King, and Freddy Peralta, who appear among the most coveted starters on the market.

I’m thinking about Clay Holmes, who had one of the best seasons of his career in 2026, first with the New York Mets and then with the Chicago Cubs, following his trade at the trade deadline. Holmes finished the season with a 6-8 record, a 3.29 ERA, and 1.8 fWAR in 18 starts during his second year as a starter. His profile would fit very well in Detroit and could become the second arm in the rotation, behind Framber Valdez.

Holmes has accumulated nine Major League seasons and has experience pitching for both New York teams. He was first a reliever for the Yankees between 2022 and 2025, before becoming a starter after joining the Mets in 2025.

His transition has been a success and without a doubt, he would fit very well in a pitching staff that will depend heavily on young talent.

What Makes the Bet on Holmes Worthwhile

This is the moment when Holmes could become a great acquisition. He just finished the 2026 season in the 86th percentile in Pitching, even though his strikeout rate suffered a drop from 9.71 K/9 to 7.01. Perhaps something similar happens to you as what I see in Holmes, since I will always keep his version as a reliever in mind, with a lot of talent, but who never managed to make the big leap that was expected. So I recognize that I was one of the skeptics about his change from reliever to starter, and not exactly because I doubted his strength.

Holmes has always been a pitcher capable of handling the workload, and he has demonstrated it with his transition over these last two years. That said, my biggest doubts were about his ability to adapt to the challenge of having to go through the batting order at least twice. How would his command adapt? What pitches was he going to add, or what mentality would he be able to adopt to make the change successful?

He has simply done it. He added a changeup and a curveball to his repertoire, worked to turn his sharp slider into a sweeper with which he has gotten more out of it, and his sinker returned to the elite, placing itself in the 93rd percentile of the league. The result is very different from that of the reliever who once depended too much on velocity and who, on not a few occasions, seemed to lack weapons to turn his matchups around under pressure.

He is now a pitcher with a greater ability to be less predictable and a wider mix of pitches. Although he has lost a little of his ability to strike hitters out, this can also be interpreted as part of his mentality to throw strikes and attack the zone. He retains the talent to induce ground balls and offer more durability. Holmes secured at least five innings in 14 of his 18 starts, and in those same 14 he allowed three runs or fewer. He was also effective at avoiding hard contact, finishing in the 93rd percentile in Barrel%, and his ability to generate chases with his pitches remained at good levels, as he finished in the 73rd percentile in Chase%.