8:56pm: The total value of Holland's deal will be $49MM if both option years are exercised according to Jeff Wilson of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (on Twitter). The contract values each of his free agent years at $10-11MM compared to $11-13MM for Lester, Gallardo, Romero, and Cahill.
8:42am: We can officially pencil Derek Holland into the Rangers' rotation for the foreseeable future. The Rangers agreed to terms with the left-hander on a five-year, $28.5MM contract extension. The deal covers the 2012-16 seasons and includes two club options, as MLBTR's Tim Dierkes first reported. Martini Sports Management represents the 25-year-old Holland.
Yovani Gallardo, Ricky Romero, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz and Trevor Cahill signed five-year deals in the $30MM range at similar stages in their respective careers and were no doubt points of reference in talks leading up to today's agreement. Holland has more career innings than any of those pitchers did at the time of their extensions, but none of them had a career ERA above 3.94 at the time of their deals, while Holland has a career mark of 4.73. The deals for Cahill and Buchholz include two club options, while the others include just one.
Holland posted a 3.95 ERA with 7.4 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 46.4% ground ball rate in 198 innings this past season. If he can replicate that level of performance, the deal will prove to be a success for the team. Yet Holland obtains financial security by agreeing to terms now instead of going year to year.
The Rangers signed Nelson Cruz and Elvis Andrus to extensions earlier in the offseason. However, the club didn't obtain additional years of control on either of those two deals.
Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News first reported that the sides were on the verge of an agreement with Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com adding detail. Photo courtesy Icon SMI.
He should get a $2MM bonus if he doesn’t shave the mustache until the contract is up
I was thinking the opposite: bonus if he does shave that baby hair off his upper lip. Or at least buy him a bushy fake mustache to glue on.
I agree. It’s there, but it isn’t there.
Nice. Rangers trying to get financial certainty going forward.
Holland is poised for a breakout, this is all about saving money before he blows up. However, the Andrus extension and Cruzs are all about trying to calculate their budgets for years to come
This is why I’m having a hard time being a Dodgers fan. Kershaw gets extended for two years? I would even be for extending Jansen.
Jansen’s a reliever, relievers are volatile. Why extend him when you can get all of his arbitration years for cheap then let him walk?
Did the Red Sox get Papelbon’s aribtration years for cheap?
Saves pay in arbitration, not many other relief pitching stats do. Until Jansen starts racking up 40 save seasons, it’s safe to say Papelbon money is not in the picture.
No! Papelbon made out well every year of arb up until his last year at 12 million which is crazy for an arb eligible closer!
Exactly.
That is a great contract that is very team-friendly. Hopefully Holland continues to blossom into the TORP he could be, but at 28.5M w/ 2 options, it’s not hamstringing the Rangers if he falls a little short. But I’ll just hope, as a Rangers fan, that he falls into the former category.
Seems like a very decent deal for the Rangers.
great deal for the Rangers. Holland is still kinda underrated, this contract could be a steal in 1-2 years.
28.5 mill. for a young pitcher who threw 4 shutout complete games last season…that is only behind Cliff Lee. Holland still has some polishing to do. His ERA shows that, but Holland keeps improving. Once consistancy sets in…big win for the Rangers.
He’ll remain a great mainstay in the rotation as he hasn’t shown the inconsistency of a Harrison or Feldman.
Rangers are using resources elsewhere. We can expect Josh Hamilton on a different team next season.
I fail to see the correlation between extending Holland and not extending Hamilton.
I think you’re confused, not every team only has 5mil a year for payroll like the rays.
I think you’re right. The Rangers see this as the beginning of their window to contend. Josh Hamilton is the equivalent of Bobby Abreu before the Phillies became a powerhouse. Nothing against Hamilton, but he’s going to get expensive when other players are still cheap.
Pretty risky, but high risk high reward
How’s it risky? It’s an extremely low contract for a very talented left-handed pitcher.
Smart move by Texas as I see Holland as a very good no.2 as he matures.
I am looking to my “MLBTR” brethern for some help.. as I know there are a lot smarter baseball minds out there than me.. arguing with a friend (heated one at that).. and he is saying that “more often than not” MLB SP’s go 5 IP with 0-2 runs allowed… I say BS… but I am having trouble finding any data/metrics to back my side up.. anyone suggestions?
Last year there were 29,293.5 innings pitched by starter. Divide that by the total games played and you get 6.02 innings pitched on average for starter. a total of 14454 runs were scored off of starters. Using the equation of (runs/innings)*avg innings pitched you get 2.97 runs per start. Basically, starters average just under half a run per 9. Please bare in mind that this is all runs and not earned runs.