The Phillies have announced that left-handed reliever Mario Hollands underwent Tommy John surgery earlier today.
Late last month, it was reported that the 26-year-old Hollands would likely require elbow surgery, but the fact that it was Tommy John surgery wasn’t known until this evening. At the time, it was reported that Hollands had a torn flexor tendon — the same injury as teammate and fellow left-hander Cliff Lee.
Tommy John surgery in early April means that the Phillies will not only be without Hollands for the entirety of the 2015 season, but likely for the early portion of the 2016 campaign as well. Prior to word of his injury, Hollands was expected to be a regular contributor in the Phillies bullpen after pitching to a 4.40 ERA with 6.7 K/9, 4.0 BB/9 and a 51.8 percent ground-ball rate in his rookie campaign last year. Hollands averaged a strong 93 mph on his fastball and was effective, albeit not dominant, against left-handed hitters, yielding a .241/.307/.316 batting line. A poor July tanked Hollands’ overall stats, and his 3.88 FIP, 4.10 xFIP and 3.97 SIERA each suggested that his ERA could’ve been slightly lower.
While on the 60-day disabled list, Holland will accrue Major League service time, meaning he’ll pick up a full year’s worth of service in 2015, bringing his total to exactly two years. That would put him on track to have most of the 2016 season to build a case for his first trip through the arbitration process, if he pitches well enough when healthy. (There’s also no guarantee that he’ll jump right back onto the MLB roster upon completing a theoretical rehab stint.)
With Hollands out for the season, Cesar Jimenez was given the first crack at the opportunity to be the second left-handed option behind Jake Diekman in manager Ryne Sandberg’s bullpen.
