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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.–The 2015 Cy Young Award winner, Jake Arrieta, is still on the market. A former World Series champion and one of the more durable pitchers in baseball, Lance Lynn, remains unsigned. Yu Darvish, a four-time All-Star and a sought-after commodity at last year’s trade deadline, waited until last weekend to sign with the Chicago Cubs.
As the most valuable free agent starting pitchers struggled to attract interest this offseason, players simply looking for a chance to prove they can still record outs also waited for calls, many of which never came.
Nine-year Major League veteran Derek Holland said he didn’t feel the sting of this year’s slow-developing free agent market, but he’s in a different place than the Arrietas of the world.
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After signing a five-year, $28.5 million contract extension with the Texas Rangers ahead of the 2012 season, Holland was poised to develop into one of the American League’s most reliable young arms. Instead, injuries wiped out critical portions of the left-hander’s prime years, and at 31 years old, all his offseason wish list consisted of was a chance to compete for a job with a Major League team.
“I can’t really say too much, those guys have been doing their job the whole time,” Holland said, when asked about this year’s free agent class. “I was in a different position than those guys, they’re going for big time contracts, I’m just trying to make a team. So it wasn’t the same, I can’t really compare to those guys.”
After posting a 3.26 ERA in 33 starts with the Rangers in 2013, Holland made just 30 total starts over the next three seasons. In November of 2016, Texas declined Holland’s $11.5 million option, which made him a free agent for the first time in his career. Following three injury-riddled campaigns, Holland inked a one-year, $6 million deal to join a rebuilding Chicago White Sox team.
The White Sox never figured to contend in the American League Central, but Holland’s 26 starts didn’t help their cause. Saddled with the worst ERA of his career, a 6.20 mark, Chicago released Holland with less than a month remaining in the regular season.
As a cold winter turned to spring, Holland watched as many of his successful colleagues failed to land opportunities. On February 9, the 6-foot-2 southpaw finally inked a deal with San Francisco, a Minor League contract that included an invitation to spring training in Scottsdale.
With the Giants, Holland is part of a large crew of pitchers jostling for a spot in a starting rotation that still has two vacancies to fill. Behind Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija, second-year hurlers Chris Stratton and Ty Blach are considered ‘front-runners’ per general manager Bobby Evans for the final two jobs. However, they’ll need to outperform prospects Tyler Beede and Andrew Suarez, as well as Holland, to secure the right to pitch every fifth day.
Manager Bruce Bochy seemingly has five capable pitchers gunning for a pair of starting roles, but the four players Holland is competing with have made a combined 36 Major League starts (Blach-24, Stratton-10), while Holland has 184 under his belt.
Bochy said Thursday he’d like to see all five pitchers start games for the Giants this spring, but San Francisco might not face enough opponents for that to be a realistic possibility. While Stratton will definitely remain a rotation fixture this spring, the Giants’ skipper said he’d like to work the others into unorthodox situations coming out of the bullpen.
“You’ll see some of them coming out of the bullpen, it’s just not possible to throw them all in the rotation,” Bochy said. “You’ll see some of them piggyback, but at the same time, I’d like to see some of them come in on a one-inning situation or maybe with men on base, cause we’re going to keep our options open here and when we break camp, you may see a surprise or two, we’ll see.”
With Will Smith targeting a May 1 return from Tommy John surgery, the Giants are limited with potential left-handed reliever options. If Blach earns a starting nod, Holland could force his way into the 25-man roster conversation by locking down left-handed hitters out of the bullpen this spring, an option he says he’ll remain open to.
“I mean, I’m just happy to have the opportunity,” Holland said. “I get to have the chance to compete and obviously my number one goal is to go as a starter and if that falls through, I have to worry about trying to be a reliever. The main thing is just taking it day-by-day. I’ve got this opportunity, I’ve got to take advantage of it and do what I can to be a part of this team.”
Bochy said in the coming days, he’ll have a chance to sit down with Holland and discuss the different roles he might be able to play as the spring unfolds. Holland signed with the Giants knowing that relieving was a possibility, and given his ability to extend over multiple innings, he could provide value for San Francisco as a long-reliever, spot starter, or left-handed specialist.
Though Holland hasn’t lived up to the standard he set at the beginning of his career over the past few seasons, he said the injury issues that have bothered him are no longer an issue. After a trying season with the White Sox, Holland is grateful for the opportunity to work with a new pitching coach, Curt Young, who knows what he’s capable of, and if all goes well this spring, the chance to record outs at a pitcher-friendly AT&T Park.
“I’m just healthy,” Holland said. “I didn’t have necessarily a full year, but I was healthy all year last year so it shows that I’m there and I just got to go out there and do my part. I can’t really worry about what they say and everything, I’ve got to wait until that decision is made and when it’s made, I have to accept what they choose.”
