SATURDAY: The Yankees will also send representatives to watch Holland on Monday, according to George A. King III of the New York Post.
FRIDAY: The Red Sox are also showing some interest and will attend the showcase, which is scheduled for Monday, per WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford. Likewise, the Rangers will be on hand, MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan tweets.
THURSDAY: The Giants are “legitimately intrigued” by former Royals closer Greg Holland and will scout his upcoming showcase, Andrew Baggarly of the Bay Area News Group tweets. Holland’s agent, Scott Boras, recently said Holland was throwing in the low 90s and would hold a showcase within the next week.
Holland missed the 2016 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery near the end of the 2015 season. He understandably struggled somewhat that year while pitching through a UCL tear, posting a 3.83 ERA with 9.9 K/9 and a too-high 5.2 BB/9 while throwing his fastball an average of about two MPH slower than the mid-90s heater he’d thrown previously. Before that, though, he was dominant, posting a combined 1.86 ERA, 12.6 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 from 2011 through 2014.
If Holland is now mostly or fully healthy, it’s for the first time in awhile. But it’s easy to see why the Giants (and, surely, many other teams) would have significant interest. He has an extremely impressive track record, and he’ll be far enough removed from surgery by next March that it’s easy to imagine he could reemerge as an effective, or even terrific, reliever if everything goes well. The Royals have also been connected to Holland, and it seems likely other teams besides San Francisco and Kansas City will enter the fray too.
Go get him.
This is like Andrew Miller or Chapman or Britton in a couple years. Once the most dominating in the sport, then reduced to flyers. Relief guys need more appreciation. Guys like Brad Hand and Chris Devenski receive no love because of their expendable nature, yet are the best in the game. Love your relievers fans. (True fans, not people who can’t name a single prospect in a teams system, and we all know who I am referring to)
WTF? Hand and Devenski are the best relievers in the league? They are both good but geez.
I would like to see Minnesota go after Greg Holland and Derek Holland. That way, the Twins could have Holland, Dozier and Holland. LOL….only you old time Motown fans will understand 🙂
The Giants are going to be “intrigued” by any arm because the pen is trash
You are right the pen is trash and now trying to pick up more trash like Greg ???
the way things are going Giants will have no w s next ten years with Bobby as Gm
If he proves to be healthy Holland can be a huge addition to any BP
Holland and trash in the same sentence?
Didn’t the Giants make the playoffs this year?
Yes without trash bullpen probably WS
don’t get ahead of yourself buddy
One would think his price tag would be significantly cheaper than Chapman/Jansen/Melancon.
Whoever signs him could get an enormous bargain.
His overall contract will be cheaper, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him sign a one year deal with a lot of incentives in it. I don’t see any team giving him a large guarantee (unless he absolutely wows at his showcase) so a deal with a low salary but a lot of incentives in it will probably be the deal he signs.
Of course it will be. Teams will either offer a 1 year incentive laden contract, or a Dodgers/B Wilson type contract. Low guarantee in the 1st and a high guarantee/player option in the 2nd.
Boras?????
If Boras thinks Holland will get Melancon money, he’s more looney than we all thought.
Boras, love him or hate it, is the best in the world at what he does.
He may get close in terms of 1 year cost. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a team try to hit a home run on him for one year high aav. its only $ and only a certain amount of players who would justify type of aav higher this year.
You mean like Brian Wilson?
Pretty much similar circumstances both trying to come back from tj I think Holland just wants a pillow contract so he can get a Papelbon type deal If healthy plus not this level of reliever on the free agent market next year.
So is about every other contending team.
If I were the gm of any team at all without an established closer I would be throwing money at holland. It seems like nobody values this guy at all. He was bad in 2015 because he was strained and injured. He had surgery and is growing again and he should get the oday/Miller money. But nobody will give it to him for some reason. I expect him to be the biggest bargain off the hot stove.
Boras was trying to hock that same line with Ryan madson coming back from TJ and it was 3 full seasons before he threw another MLB inning. beware that boras hype machine. it’s full of hot air. Both the Reds and Angels wasted millions watching madson sit on the DL listening to it.
Small guarantee and HEAVY on incentives is how to treat severe injuries if Boras wants a deal with any smart GM, only the weak minded gm;’s will once again give into heavy guarantees.
I agree. The key line from the article is “…he’ll be far enough removed from surgery by next March that it’s easy to imagine….’ There are a lot of people on this site imagining what the pre-injury Holland could do for their team. That’s not the Holland that’s available now. This one is an unknown. This is post-injury Holland. Do you feel lucky?
He hasn’t pitched in over a year and you would throw Miller money at him? GM’s won’t do that because they would get canned before the ink dried. Holland will have no trouble getting a job but it will be on a 1 or 2 year deal.
He has Phillies written all over him
The Giants should be “legitimately intrigued” by any bullpen arm with a pulse. That garbage bullpen was arguably the only thing that kept them from beating the Cubs in the first round. Would’ve loved to have seen Cueto vs the Cubs in a game 5.
No I love to see Cueto game 4 9th inning
Giants should jump at the opportunity if given, at least in my opinion. Go back out and grab Petit and hopefully be able to snag Melancon. It’s heavily right handed but it could potentially get the job done.
I don’t know about petit – there is already suarez for the long man role and possibly a couple of others knocking at the door. I would think that if you could swing melancon, holland and zeigler you would have a really huge upgrade that wouldn’t completely break the bank.
Giants are already well stocked with returning lefties: Will Smith, Steve Okert, Josh Osich, Just add Melancon and Holland and give the rest of the relievers more defined roles and problem solved.
No doubt Holland will get a flier somewhere, but any team that assumes he’s a legitimate Plan A closer in 2017 is kidding somebody. Almost nobody comes back from TJ without a lot of rust to bang off and all sorts of potential for setbacks.
You’re right to say almost nobody does, but Billy Wagner did with the Braves back in 2010 after only pitching in a handful of games at the end of the year before. So it can happen. It’s just not smart to absolutely expect it to happen.
Hey Giants fan
What are the Giants Gm chances that they will trade for Mike Trout
I will give Angels Tyler Beedee. Christian arroyo and Ty Blach
That would be terrible on so many levels, the farm is already depleted and throwing pitching prospects away for someone who is not going to put up the same kind of numbers in your home park makes no sense. The giants need to get an OF in FA or go for a less glamorous target
You act like giving up 3 decent prospects for MIKE TROUT is a bad idea. The Giants would give up every pitching prospect they have for him
no, I am acting like it makes no sense for a team to get rid of it’s best prospects for a player that arguably won’t make the team better. Trout is great but he won’t carry the whole club. The giants need to fill holes that they need to fill and not just get a guy because he is good. Right now the OF isn’t great and could use an upgrade but is serviceable and not the biggest issue. in LF you have the options of working belt out more and adding power at 1b or just platooning mac and parker who have promise but need at bats, at 3rd you can always switch nunez to a utility guy that he excels at and bring up arroyo at the corner or add a justin turner or someone, Blach really showed promise this year and with cain off the books and cueto possibly leaving – internal options of blach and beede are pretty necessary. If trout could carry a whole team on his own the Angels wouldn’t trade him. When it comes down to it the team that the angels would trade for him should be a prospect rich team that isn’t doing well and can trade a mix of major ready and prospect talent and that isn’t the giants.
You’re saying that Mike Trout “arguably won’t make the team any better”? That’s just ignorant
what I am saying is that it wouldn’t move the needle as much as other issues the team has, do you really think that trout with 10+ homers subtracted from his annual total will somehow make up for a bad bullpen, will help the starting rotation when cueto leaves next year or will make up for a lack of infield power is pretty ignorant. arroyo, blach and beede are right now along with shaw, blackburn abd stratton the only real things in the system that you are looking towards to be close to mlb ready talent on the horizon unless someone surprises you since at the break you lost fox, mejia, bickford, etc. If you give away the farm your only option is to spend huge in FA and even then – hitters don’t wat to play in AT&T.
I agree with what you’re saying: SF would have to gut the system and kill off the future for Trout, while the prospects in question aren’t enough to get Trout anyway.
How does Trout lose 10 plus homeruns going from the 28th worst hitting park to the 30th worst hitting park? I agree that Trout will never get traded because of asking price, but I’m curious for your reasoning behind him losing that many homers?
We get what you’re saying – that SF needs pitching help more than outfield help…but saying you wouldn’t trade Beede, Arroyo, and Blach for Trout is insane.
Mike Trout won’t hit ten less home runs at AT&T Park. Look at his park overlays. 3 of his homeruns this year would not have been gone, 4 last year, and 4 in 2014.
Regardless, he posted a 10.8 WAR this season. Denard Span had a 1.0 WAR. Theoretically, Trout would add nearly 10 wins to the Giants. What pitcher is going to give you a 10.0 WAR?
And besides, those three prospects aren’t even good. If you’d rather have those three than Trout you’re insane. At the very least, you could trade those three for Trout and then trade Trout for Urias, De Leon, Alvarez, and Pederson or something.
I don’t think three is enough for him…Halos need pitching badly thou
wolf chan are you serious? if you think giving those prospects are to much for trout your wrong. angels would no way take that, or any other deal with trout in it.
The halos wouldn’t even pick up the phone, it would take an abundance of mlb ready players from a team that has a stocked farm. Laughable idea, to put nicely
Is that a joke? The only top 100 prospect even included is Arroyo, and he’s 62. If SF called the Angels about Trout…the 1st person that the Angels are asking for is Bumgarner. Even then more prospects will need to be added to make it work.
this is actually a pretty good article on top 100’s –
royalsreview.com/2011/2/14/1992424/success-and-fai…
what you see is that most of the time the top 100s don’t pan out.
Doesn’t change the fact that they are still highly valued around the league…
I don’t think the Giants have any chance of acquiring Mike Trout. That package seems more likely to get JD Martinez, which isn’t a bad idea is SF extends him.
Now that’s a more probable trade, could see that happening.
posey, bumgarner & cueto for trout probably gets done, otherwise lol the giants have nothing remotely close in the farm to even think about this horrible trade matchup
That’s too much for trout. I’d guess LA would want younger guys anyways, so you’d empty San franciscos farm and then add in Panik, Moore, Tomlinson and Parker and then add in established veterans. I think there’s better fits then San Fran though, they don’t have the farm to get him without ruining their major league team
Do these GM’s literally use the word “intrigued”?
Smacks a little of a Boras-sculpted quote.
With Familia likely out, Holland is a good choice for the Mets.
Teams are trying looking for low cost upgrades at this time of year, most of the pitchers and outfielders lately fit that category.
What team isn’t intrigued by him?
I’d go as high as 1 for 8-10 with a player option but only as my setup guy counting on him as your closer right out of the shoot might be asking for trouble. And that’s not surprising what is surprising is were not hearing 20+ teams are interested when healthy Holland was elite every team would love to add him
Most major league teams are going to take a hard look at this guy. His track record when healthy is far to great to just pass without a look. The Cubs will probably look at him also. The Bullpen was shaky in the playoffs and Chapman is probably gone and the price may be outside what the Cubs would be comfortable spending on Jansen and Melancon
Chapman going to the Yankees so Cubs soon after the parade today let get him to compete with Robson who must’ve been hurt. To good not to been used by Maddon
I would be thrilled to see Toronto bring him onboard as Osuna’s setup man for something like 4-ish million guaranteed and 100k per hold or save.
I think the going rate will probable hit 14-15 this go round
Hello! Angels organization, is anyone home? At the very least take a look…. One of the most absentminded organizations.
Everyone is assuming Holland is going to be great. He has a lot to prove. And no one knows if a team is in the running, much less the favorite based upon some reporters comments.
Actually, no, not everyone is assuming that.
Where are the Yankees on this
Still trying to clear payroll!
Every contending team will be in one Holland if he can throw well
1
Though I believe Chapman will return to the Cubs, I’d like to see them go after Holland as obviously Rondon wasn’t the same after his injury and I don’t see them spending meaningful on anyone other than Chapman and maybe an Arrieta extension.
The Blue Jays should have someone there too. They can surely use the bullpen help
Blu Jays loaded with contract issues