Cubs already have obvious extension candidate from trade deadline haul

Cards. On. The. Table. Without moving his team's top overall prospect, Josiah Hartshorn, or top pitching prospect in Jaxon Wiggins, Jed Hoyer reloaded his Chicago Cubs team with two top-of-the-rotation rentals, a filthy long-term bullpen piece and a fun side project in left-hander Braxton Garrett.

Let the man cook. And cook he did.

One item went unchecked on the team's trade deadline shopping list: a proven starter with multiple years of team control. At one point, it looked as if Reid Detmers was joining the mix, but after that proved not to be the case, the team 'settled' for the likes of Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes. And, in Holmes, they may very well have their long-term piece.

Clay Holmes profiles perfectly as a long-term Cubs rotation piece

Few pitchers in baseball stand to reap the benefits of pitching in front of the Cubs' elite defense more than Holmes, who is an old-school pitcher who thrives by keeping the ball on the ground. The Mets' defense he had behind him in Queens was, well, not great - and that's putting it mildly. It won't take any time at all for him to recognize the difference in Chicago and start reaping the benefits.

I'm not saying the two sides are ready to sit down and work out an extension before he even makes his Cubs debut. They still need to meet to discuss whether he wants another rehab start or if he feels he's ready to make his next start with the big-league club. But heading into the offseason, it seems probable that there's a conversation to be had here - one centered around keeping him in the fold for 2027 and beyond.

A deal wouldn't be anything crazy, even with today's ludicrous cost of pitching. I think he'd come in somewhere in the $20 million AAV range (assuming he pitches well down the stretch and into October after returning from injury and probably get three years given he turns 36 next March. Chicago has a ton of money (and rotation vacancies) on their hands at season's end and Holmes could be the recipient of both.

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