A’s outright Grant Holmes to Triple-A

Another pitcher is out of the running for the Opening Day roster.

The Oakland A’s outrighted Grant Holmes to Triple-A Las Vegas, the team announced Friday morning.

With this move, Holmes is removed from the 40-man roster, which now stands at 39 players with one open spot, but he remains in the organization. In order to make this transaction, Holmes first had to clear waivers, meaning no other team claimed him.

It’s a step back for the right-hander, who was once one of the top prospects in the system. He was a 1st-round draft pick by the Dodgers out of high school in 2014, then was traded to Oakland in 2016 as the headliner for Josh Reddick and Rich Hill. At that time he was a consensus national Top 100 prospect, but in the years since his stock faded as he struggled with inconsistency and injuries.

Most recently, Holmes spent last summer in Triple-A but found no luck in the hitter’s paradise of Las Vegas. He pitched 36 games, seven of them starts, and his numbers weren’t pretty even by the standards of the tough league and home environment.

• Holmes, 2021 AAA: 8.01 ERA, 66⅓ ip, 71 Ks, 40 BB, 11 HR, 5.89 FIP

In the Cactus League this spring, he appeared three times and got beaten up twice, for a total of six runs in 2⅓ innings.

Now age 26, Holmes will need to work his way back onto the depth chart if he’s to reach the majors in Oakland. Entering last season he was still in the Top 10 of our Community Prospect List, and the fact that he was added to the 40-man roster so early in his career (entering 2019) is a testament to his raw talent, but his journey toward MLB just got its latest detour.

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To see how this affects the general spring training competition, click here to see the latest spring roster update, where Holmes had been one of many candidates for the bullpen.

See below for the updated 40-man roster. Outfielder Ramon Laureano is absent due to his ongoing PED suspension, and won’t need to take a roster spot until he is activated from the Restricted List a couple dozen games into the season. Players listed in —italics have not yet debuted in the majors.