Projecting an Angels contract for Yankees' closer Clay Holmes in free agency

While the 2024 season has been a big disappointment on a number of levels for the Los Angeles Angels, they should enter the 2025 season as a pretty interesting team. Assuming the Angels stay the course and current promotion trends hold, top prospects Christian Moore and Caden Dana should be in the mix for roster spots and the Angels' young core of Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel, and Logan O'Hoppe is already pretty strong especially once Mike Trout is back.

Given that, one would hope that the Angels would at least attempt to add some useful players in free agency this coming offseason. Convincing Arte Moreno to spend big on guys like Juan Soto or Max Fried feels unlikely, but one prominent name that could be in the Angels' price range is the Yankees' pending free agent reliever Clay Holmes.

Clay Holmes as an Angels free agent makes more sense than you would think

While a contending team like the Yankees giving up on bringing back their closer seems somewhat dubious, there are some mitigating factors here. First and foremost, the Yankees' decision-making is often suspect. Yankees top brass seem to prefer having a couple really good players that sell jerseys, rather than filling the rest of the roster from top to bottom. They better hope that Aaron Judge keeps doing his best Babe Ruth impression, because they are in a lot of trouble if he gets back on the Injured List train.

The other factor, which probably matters more, is that they want to (and should) bring Juan Soto back. Soto is one of the best hitters in all of baseball, but he is also going to cost a fortune to sign back. That could mean a guy like Holmes gets the boot. Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner already crying poor just heightens that possibility.

For the Angels, the calculus is pretty straightforward. They are unlikely to go all-in on one of the big names and they lost Carlos Estevez from their bullpen. Ben Joyce is their current choice to be their closer going forward, but adding an arm like Holmes would give them a genuinely deep bullpen and protect against the possibility of Joyce regressing next year. Every Angels fan is still awaiting Robert Stephenson's debut.

As to what the Angels should be willing to pay for Holmes, that all comes down to Moreno's willingness to spend on this roster. Holmes absolutely should not get what guys like Edwin Diaz and Josh Hader received in their deals, but asking Holmes to get paid like a setup guy probably isn't going to work. Something in the realm of a three year, $48 million deal is defensible as closing option alongside Joyce and Stephenson. If Holmes can get more than that to be a surefire closer elsewhere, just let him get paid by someone else.

More LA Angels News from Halo Hangout