The Braves announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Grant Holmes. Left-hander Ray Kerr was optioned to Triple-A in order to make room for Holmes on the active roster, while Holmes will take the 40-man roster spot of right-hander Huascar Ynoa, who was recalled from the minors and placed on the 60-day injured list with a stress reaction in his right elbow.
Holmes, 28, was a first-round pick by the Dodgers back in 2014 and quickly rose to be a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport. Holmes was swapped alongside Frankie Montas and Jharel Cotton from L.A. to Oakland in the trade that sent Josh Reddick to the Dodgers just before the 2016 trade deadline, and at the time Holmes appeared to be the headliner of the return headed to the A’s. Unfortunately, shoulder problems and ineffectiveness at the upper levels of the minors prevented Holmes from impacting the A’s during his time with the organization, and he was outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster in early 2022.
The right-hander joined the Braves on a minor league deal for the 2023 season and generally pitched well in a relief role with the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett. In 61 innings of work, Holmes posted a 3.54 ERA with a 28.7% strikeout rate. That was enough for the Braves to re-sign him to a fresh minor league deal ahead of the 2024 season, and he’s once again found success with the club at the Triple-A level, this time in a swing role: in 18 appearances (3 starts) spanning 41 innings, Holmes has dominated to the tune of a 2.63 ERA with an excellent 30.4% strikeout rate in that time. That was clearly enough for the Braves to decide to give Holmes a shot at the big league level, and he’s now poised to make his MLB debut after a decade working his way through the minor leagues.
Headed down to Triple-A in place of Holmes is Kerr, who Atlanta acquired from the Padres alongside Matt Carpenter in a deal over the offseason. The southpaw’s time with the Braves hasn’t gone as the club was surely hoping when they took on Carpenter’s contract to acquire him. In 22 1/3 innings of multi-inning relief work, Kerr has struggled to a 5.64 ERA and 4.40 FIP across ten appearances in the majors. The lefty has appeared to be more effective in shorter bursts, as he has allowed just two runs on nine hits and three walks while striking out eight across nine innings of work when throwing 40 pitches or less in an outing. For now, Kerr figures to head back to Triple-A and wait for his next opportunity to impact the big league bullpen in Atlanta.
As for Ynoa, the talented right-hander flashed exciting upside during the 2021 season with the Braves, when he pitched to a 4.05 ERA in 91 innings of work and struck out 26.9% of batters faced. Unfortunately, the right-hander has pitched just 6 2/3 innings of work in the majors since then and last appeared at the highest level in 2022 due to a number of injuries, including Tommy John surgery. Now it appears Ynoa is headed back to the shelf for what figures to be another extended absence, as the stress reaction in his right elbow will sideline him for at least the next two months.