Phillies — Who May Only Add One Reliever — ‘Checked In on' Pair of Former Yankees

Managing Editor

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Sep 29, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees pitcher Clay Holmes (35) reacts after the games final out against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images John Jones

The Phillies have shown interest in two former New York Yankees relief pitchers, per a new report.

In a deep dive on the state of the offseason that's worth your time, Matt Gelb of The Athletic passed along a nugget on a pair of relievers the Phillies have "checked in on" so far in free agency:

"The Phillies have checked in on numerous relievers, either as free agents or trade targets, including two former Yankees relievers, Clay Holmes and Tommy Kahnle."

Clay Holmes, Wicked Back-To-Back Sinkers. 🤢 pic.twitter.com/u3EurIjy0a
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 4, 2024

Holmes has been an All-Star in two of the last three seasons, and has an electric repertoire. However, he struggles with control at times, and lost the closer's job for the Yankees down the stretch of the 2024 season after blowing three saves and posting a 6.00 ERA in September.

To his credit, Holmes rebounded in the postseason, posting a 2.25 ERA across 13 appearances for a Yankees team that reached the World Series. The 31-year-old's stuff is undeniable when he's locked in, which is why despite losing the closer's job late in the season, I projected over on Bleacher Report that he would get a two-year/$24 million deal. Some outlets went even further, with MLB Trade Rumors predicting a three-year/$30 million deal. So if you sign him, it's probably to be the top reliever in your bullpen.

Kahnle — who MLB Trade Rumors projected will get a two-year/$13 million deal — could probably be signed in addition to another higher-leverage reliever. With that said, the changeup-heavy righty posted a 2.11 ERA across 50 games this past season, and is drawing widespread interest. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported this past week that the incumbent Yankees are one of eight teams who have shown interest in the 35-year-old righty. Perhaps he's going to get more than expected.

Tommy Kahnle, K'ing the Side with Changeups.

Kahnle threw 17 pitches in the 8th inning...
All 17 were changeups. pic.twitter.com/mWfJMEit2o
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 23, 2024

Gelb also said that the Phillies "remain interested in a reunion" with Jeff Hoffman, who posted a 2.17 ERA and was an All-Star this past season before struggling mightily in the postseason.

What complicates the pursuits of both Hoffman and Holmes is that it's not necessarily clear if either will sign to be a reliever. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel has written this offseason about teams showing interest in Hoffman as a starting pitcher, and Joel Sherman of The New York Post wrote something similar about Holmes recently as well.

It increasingly feels like the Phillies absolutely need to nail their big reliever signing this offseason, whoever it ends up being.

President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said in his year-end press conference that he thought it was unlikely that the team would re-sign both Hoffman and Carlos Estévez, predicting both would get lucrative multi-year deals.

But Dombrowski has hinted now on multiple occasions that it may just be one notable right-handed reliever the Phillies add to the bullpen mix this offseason, as opposed to signing someone like Hoffman or Holmes to a multi-year deal and supplementing that with another veteran — like Blake Treinen, for example — on a one-year deal.

This line sticks out from a pre-Winter Meetings chat Dombrowski had with MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.

“The way I look at it is we have a very good team,” Dombrowski said. “We won a lot of games last year. We won our division. We basically have mostly our whole club back. We’re not an aged club. I look at us as having a very good club going into next year. We’ve got four starting pitchers at the top of the rotation who are as good as anybody’s. We have a good offensive balance from the right-handed side and left-handed side. We need to fill a bullpen spot. But we have a really good club. We didn’t play well against the Mets. But the reality is we have a really good club and I think we’ll have a really good club next year."

Dombrowski went on to talk about being "open-minded," which surely the Phillies will be. As far as the bullpen goes, though, it seems like the mix there will be largely the same as 2024 with either Hoffman coming back or one free-agent signing in his place.