2:29pm: Holland has indeed been activated, with Mayers being optioned out to Memphis to clear a spot on the 25-man roster, tweets MLB.com’s Joe Trezza.
9:40am: Monday marks the day that Greg Holland is eligible to be activated and added to the Cardinals roster, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that the Cards intend to do just that in advance of tonight’s game against the Brewers.
Holland signed a one-year, $14MM contract with the Cardinals on Opening Day and figures to slide into the team’s closer role, where he’ll supplant the struggling Dominic Leone. Goold notes that a roster move will need to be made and suggests that right-hander Mike Mayers, who has pitched sparingly thus far in 2018, could be optioned out to open a spot for the new St. Louis closer. The Cardinals would prefer Mayers to log regular innings, per Goold, as opposed to receive sporadic work as a long man. One reliever who, unsurprisingly, isn’t presently in danger of being optioned for Holland or for the eventual return of Luke Gregerson is flamethrowing young righty Jordan Hicks, whom manager Mike Matheny praises in Goold’s piece.
The Cardinals punted their second-round pick in order to add Holland on his one-year deal, taking advantage of a collapsed market for the 2017 NL saves leader. In doing so, they’re banking on the belief that Holland’s disastrous August — 14 runs and four homers in 9 2/3 frames — was attributable to some arm fatigue in his first season back from Tommy John surgery and is not a portent for similar struggles down the line.
Holland will likely be eased into things with the Cardinals, as he’s still made just two appearances for the Cardinals’ Class-A Advanced affiliate, during which he was tagged for a solo homer but also recorded a pair of strikeouts without issuing a walk. For the time being, though, it’s easy to imagine that the Cardinals could be reluctant to pitch him on back-to-back days — and certainly not on three consecutive days.
[Related: St. Louis Cardinals depth chart]
With Holland now on board, he’ll front a relief corps also featuring Leone, Hicks, Tyler Lyons, Bud Norris, Matt Bowman, John Brebbia and Sam Tuivailala. That group is hardly set in stone, as Gregerson’s return will push one of the less-experienced arms off the active roster. (Brebbia was only just recalled over the weekend and could potentially be optioned back to Memphis down the line.) St. Louis is also light on left-handed relief at the moment due to the fact that both Brett Cecil and Ryan Sherriff are also on the disabled list. There’s no hard timeline on the return of either southpaw, though Sherriff’s outlook is less troubling, as he’s on the shelf with a fractured toe. Cecil, meanwhile, hit the DL with a shoulder strain in late March and, as Goold notes, felt pain in his ankle yesterday and was prescribed at least a day in a walking boot.
Good luck
Scioscia praise! Wow!
Ha, yeah. No coffee yet this morning and still Angels on the brain from the last post. Both former MLB catchers, right?!
Fixed that. Thanks.
Holland will be a great add to the bullpen, but it’s Matheny, so I am sure he will find a way to screw this up.
mathenys misuse of the bullpen will negatively effect all pitchers in the bullpen. the list of rag arms from the misuse is mounting..Rosenthal, siegrist, maness, motte…and list continues to mount, give oquendo the reins and let’s fix this problem
Bowman will be next.
amen!
When will Matheny realize Brebia is 10x better than bowman
not sure, but for some reason he loves bowman, maybe he has some dirt to share
Mayers down for Holland and Brebbia for Gregerson sounds right.
Tui is out of options and MM loves him some Bowman and Hicks.
It wasn’t arm fatigue it was looming paternity fatigue he suffered from! He will be fine.
“Monday marks the day that Greg Holland is eligible to be activated and added to the Cardinals roster”
What does this mean? Why would he have been ineligible before?
Perhaps the timing of his option to the minors? Just a guess
Yep, that’s it. 10 day waiting period after being optioned.
Holland must have been on the 10day DL (the days work).
Minor league rehab assignment, and now “activated”.
I always get a chuckle from the wanna be managers here. Blaming Matheny for miss use of the bullpen. Like the last two years was his fault. It seemed every time he went to the bullpen in that time span no matter who he brought in to relieve they would give up a walk a hit or a homerun or a combination of all three. Sometimes you just have to blame the players for poor performance. It didn’t matter who the manager was.
The misuse has nothing to do with the results, look at the use thus. far this year, he uses guys too often and too many days in a row. in addition the magnitude of injuries is proof that something is not working, maybe thats why Maddux was brought in to stop this inadequate decision maker.
He doesn’t mishandle the bullpen any different than any other manage does. I believe he would have been gone along time ago if management would think for a minute it was Matheny’s fault but it’s not of course sometimes the players themselves have to take responsibility for their own woeful performances. And it’s not too hard for an experienced fan like me to understand that it’s not on the manager in this particular instance.
Not being able to recognize Matheny’s failures with the bullpen says a lot about your baseball knowledge. I can’t tell if you’re just trying to be a contrarian or if you are really this clueless.
Haha another guy with no clue
It happened again today when he left Holland in when Greg clearly didn’t have it. If he makes a move and doesn’t allow him to walk in the go ahead run…who knows?
Today’s game was a prime example of MM incompetence as a manger !
Maybe they should’ve left him in the minors
Holland was not ready. It seemed upper management tried to push him a bit quick. So yeah blame the manager.
Upper Management must have called MM in the 10th and told him to use Holland because he cost $14 mil. right…? MM could have pulled the cord but chose to let Holland struggle in the cold.
Dude, I’m admittedly one of the biggest cardinals homers on here and lifelong huge cardinals fan. Matheny is an idiot and has to go. Last night was the latest in long line of debacles under him. Don’t tell me his winning record to support him either. Facts are cards have declined every year under him and would have atleast one more ring and prob two more pennants if any other manager would have been at helm since 2012. Anyone have joe girardis number?
I like your thinking about Girardis!!!
Yes they should’ve ! He wasn’t ready yet and it showed!
Now the Cardinals need to deactivate Holland until he can throw strikes!!!!
I guess you didn’t watch yesterday…