How are Cubs liking trade-deadline acquisitions Kevin Gausman, Clay Holmes? ‘They’re going to help us a lot’
If you had to choose one word to sum up Clay Holmes’ 2026, what would it be?
“He’s been disgusting all season, man,” outfielder Tyrone Taylor said.
That’s a compliment, by the way.
Holmes has indeed been “disgusting” throughout his career, a former All-Star closer turned effective starter who was one of the big trade-deadline additions for a Cubs team seeking postseason glory.
Taylor played with Holmes on the Mets the last two seasons, seeing the right-hander’s great 2025 and even better start to 2026 before a leg injury wiped out three months of his campaign.
But Holmes is healthy again and has pitched well in his second and third turns as a Cub, following up 6 2/3 scoreless innings against the Cardinals last weekend with 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball against the White Sox on Wednesday.
It’s been grounders aplenty from the sinkerballer, who’s looked worthy of Jed Hoyer’s win-now statement, the surrender of the Cubs’ No. 2 prospect, infielder Jefferson Rojas, to rent Holmes for a planned October run.
Certainly, the players around Holmes help; the Cubs own baseball’s best defense and the second highest scoring offense in the sport.
“More times than not, if you can keep this team in the game, then something special can happen,” Holmes said. “I have zero ounce or fear of getting the ball on the ground. I know that if I do that time and time again, a lot of good things are going to happen behind me, even with guys on.
“Sometimes it’s easy to feel like you have to shy away from it with runners on, … but even with runners on, there’s a lot of confidence. I can trust the contact that I get and that outs are going to be made. … It frees you up, and it allows you to pitch with a lot of confidence.”
It’s been three starts apiece now in Cubs uniforms for Holmes and fellow trade-deadline addition Kevin Gausman, two righties who Hoyer slotted in at the top of the team’s starting rotation to bolster a pitching staff that had its depth tested throughout the summer.
“They’re super pro,” second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “They’re guys that have had success in a lot of different places. It’s been great to have them.
“They’re going to help us a lot.”
That’s not to say it’s all been sunshine and rainbows and fans can start lining up for a parade.
Holmes looked understandably rusty in his debut, allowing four runs in four innings, though he’s bounced back nicely. Gausman, meanwhile, has had a couple tough nights after a terrific first outing, when he threw seven innings of two-run ball against the Royals.
The right-hander was tagged for six runs against the Nationals’ best-in-baseball offense last week, then left Tuesday’s start early with a hand cramp, not making it out of the fifth inning in either outing.
“It’s pretty frustrating, to be honest, my first start [at Wrigley Field] as a Cub, obviously not what I’m trying to do,” Gausman said after Tuesday’s game. “It’s only the second time, I think, in my career that I left the game [with an injury].
“I’ve had [the cramping] happen, but usually it’s when I’m over 100 pitches, that’s when I run into it. I’ve never had it happen that early in an outing. That’s why it’s kind of frustrating.”
But these guys’ track records are still speaking for themselves inside the Cubs’ clubhouse. Gausman pitched well in helping the Blue Jays to the doorstep of a World Series win last fall, while Holmes pitched for the Yankees in all five games of the previous year’s Fall Classic.
Both guys lost to the Dodgers, something they’d surely be happy to avenge.
The Cubs have had their sights on winning the season’s final game – something that will require toppling the Dodgers, not to mention the first-place, division-rival Brewers – from the jump this year, and Hoyer’s import of both Gausman and Holmes have a lot to do with how the team plans to do it.
The reviews so far?
“Disgusting.”