Clay Holmes has a $12 million player option coming up in 2027, but the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser believes he's going to opt out of that deal.

Should Holmes choose to move on from the Chicago Cubs, the team he was traded to after beginning his career with the New York Mets, he'll immediately become a top free agent target.

The San Francisco Giants aren't exactly in the market to go after rentals, but should the price be right, putting together a deal with Holmes is absolutely worth exploring.

Logan Webb has been their main ground-ball starter, but Holmes has a career ground-ball rate of 62%, which rivals that of Webb's (56%).

Together, this could be an incredible one-two punch in the starting lineup, and that's something this Giants rotation desperately needs.

Holmes was traded on Aug. 3 for the Cubs' No. 2 overall prospect, but it got this team absolutely nowhere as they were eliminated in the Wild Card round.

That was a pretty penny only to not even make it out of the Wild Card, and it's crazy to think that even with all the changes the Cubs made, they still finished worse than they did a year ago.

If Holmes is serious about opting out, then that gives the Giants a chance to get in on these sweepstakes. 

He'll be turning 34 years old on March 27, two days before the Giants' Opening Day, if the season does indeed start on time.

There are slight injury concerns with Holmes as he suffered a fractured right fibula back in May, but he was still a 2.0 WAR player this season in his 18 combined starts.

Holmes started exactly nine games with both the Mets and Cubs. He was 4-4 in New York while he fell to 2-4 in Chicago.

His ERA went from 2.39 with the Mets to 4.25 with the Cubs, so that's absolutely something to monitor moving forward.

Obviously, the Giants are desperate for a few new arms as they can't be putting a guy like Matt Wilkinson out there on a consistent basis in 2027.

Holmes would bring the team a veteran presence, and while it would be his fourth team in the last four years, he's got a career 3.59 ERA to go along with a rock-solid 1.28 WHIP.

The Alabama native surpassed 600 career innings last season, and while all 18 of his appearances were starts, he was only recently turned into a starter, so his 74 career saves could look quite tempting for the Giants if he struggles in the starting rotation.