The Royals will not tender an offer to injured reliever Greg Holland, sources tell Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. The news doesn’t come as much of a surprise after Holland underwent Tommy John surgery in late September. Heyman adds that the Royals would be happy to consider a two-year deal for Holland, as they did for Kris Medlen.
Holland was set to earn $11.3MM via arbitration, according to MLBTR and Matt Swartz’s projection model. Even before Holland’s injury, there were questions as to whether the Royals would be able to retain the 29-year-old (30 next month). When the former closer suffered a “significant” tear in his UCL, the decision unfortunately became much easier for KC. Holland will miss most, if not all of the 2016 season.
The Royals were said to have asked Holland to get the elbow checked out on multiple occasions this season, but Holland’s preference was always to pitch through the discomfort. Ultimately, though, his September struggles became too significant, and with his fastball dropping from the mid 90s to the high 80s, Holland had no choice but to get checked out.
To this point in his career, the two-time All-Star has a 2.42 ERA with 12.1 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and 145 saves in 319 2/3 innings. All of those innings came as a member of the Royals, who selected Holland in the 10th round of the 2007 draft. It’s still possible that the Royals and Holland could work out a new deal, but Kansas City will have to compete with everybody else if that’s their intention. Holland and newly hired agent Scott Boras can be expected to scout the market for the best opportunity.
Tough but necessary decision. I’d sure like to see him in the Twins pen next-next year but of course there isn’t a bullpen in the league he wouldn’t fit in with if his recovery goes well.
Assuming he gets the TJ he was expected to, he won’t be ready next year and probably won’t be back to form until midway through 2017 or later.
Aren’t most TJ pitchers ***MOST*** back around a year, maybe slightly more? In that case, I seem him ready for the start of 2017.
Who knows though, how much worse he made things by pitching through it so long…
Return is about a year, but it generally takes about a half season to regain the form. And as a RP, the back to back days and workload is a bit off (warming up but not used) to the typical rehab schedule
He said “next-next year” for a reason.
Jd did you read the article? He is going to miss all of next year. So if he is in the twins bullpen he’s going to basically be taking up a spot of someone else who could be there and actually be pitching
Even paying for him to rehab with your team is worth the potential rewards of him in the bullpen in 2017. My guess is Holland is going to get a bunch of offers.
But he only has one year of arb remaining. You would be paying him to rehab and then potentially losing him anyway. I think teams might skittish to sign him because of the Ryan Madson situation from a few years back. Madson was a great closer with the Phils and then got hurt and both the Reds and Angels got nothing from their investment in him. Not an exact parallel, but pretty close.
That’s why they would sign him to a 2-year deal since he’s basically a free agent now.
So they don’t get a draft pick?
The Tigers need bullpen help.
For 2017?
Braves love their TJ stories