Greg Holland’s short tenure with the Cardinals took another disastrous turn Saturday when the once-dominant reliever got the loss against the Phillies, who scored twice on him in 2/3 of an inning. Holland, whom the Cards guaranteed $14MM after he went through spring training unemployed, has now pitched to a sky-high 7.30 ERA with astoundingly poor strikeout and walk rates (6.57 K/9, 10.22 BB/9) across 12 1/3 innings this season. Nevertheless, there’s no indication the the Cardinals will ask him to head to the minors to work through his issues, Joe Trezza of MLB.com tweets. Even if the Redbirds were interested in demoting Holland, they’d need the 32-year-old’s consent to do so. It doesn’t appear they’d receive it, though, as Holland “flatly denounced the idea” of going down, Trezza writes.
- In better news for the Cardinals, ace Carlos Martinez received “encouraging” results on the right shoulder MRI he underwent this week, according to president John Mozeliak (Twitter link via Rob Rains of STLSportsPage). Martinez is on track to begin a throwing program Monday and return to the Cards’ rotation within one or two weeks, Rains adds. The fireballer has been out since May 8, before which he notched a 1.62 ERA/3.38 FIP across 50 innings.
- Although the Royals own the majors’ second-worst record (14-31) and look like sellers in the making, they’re not yet focused on trades, general manager Dayton Moore tells Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. “It all depends on where we’re at when that time comes,” Moore said. “Honestly, we’ve never been a team that has traded many guys off the 25-man roster. We’ll see where we are. There’s no reason to make advance decisions on that.” For now, the Moore-led Royals are more concerned about June’s draft, in which they own five of the first 58 picks, Flanagan points out. Once the draft’s in the rearview mirror, the Royals may have at least a few potential trade chips in contract-year veterans Mike Moustakas, Kelvin Herrera, Jon Jay, Lucas Duda and Alcides Escobar; speculatively, though, quality returns may be hard to come by in most of those cases.
- The Pirates plan to activate second baseman Josh Harrison from the disabled list Sunday, manager Clint Hurdle told Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and other reporters Saturday. Harrison has been out since mid-April with a fractured left hand, and fellow second base options Sean Rodriguez, Max Moroff and Adam Frazier haven’t been particularly productive in his absence. The club optioned Moroff to Triple-A on Saturday.
- As is the case with Martinez, the outlook for Brewers righty Jimmy Nelson is also positive. Nelson, who’s working back from the right shoulder surgery he underwent last September, got good news after his visit with Dr. Neal ElAttrache this week, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He’s now at the beginning of a 10-day rest period, Rosiak reports.
Holland will not accept a trip to the minors, but will be the only place that he will be able to pitch following this year. It would only make sense to go down and try to fix his problems.
why would he take a demotion? if they designate him or release him, he gets his money and can pick his spot to return, albeit with most likely a bad team as trade bait to regain value. if he takes a demotion, he loses any power he has and can be left their for the rest of the season. he might as well take a minor league deal with an opt out after he is released if that’s the case.
If he agreed to go down and get straightened out he may actually be able to salvage his career rather than continue to struggle and lose all leverage. If he is good with this being his last year, stay up until his release. His current market value is zero.
Theres no way any team would be so fiscally irresponsible as to pay a AAA reliever 14 million dollars. Cards wont bother to talk to Holland or his agent about accepting a demotion, but he needs to find the strike zone or only be used in blowouts (to soak up innings) and emergencies (12+ inning games, injury situations).
There have been many times an established high paid player has been sent down for a short time to iron out problems. They only want him to go for short period, because as of now he can’t be used in any game that they want to win. The fiscal irresponsibility may have occurred when they signed him.
Not with Matheny, he has a man crush on the guy, he’s already cost several games but he just keeps running him out there
Cards have a closer on the Redbirds who has an over the top splitter that is hard to hit. Preston Guilmet of Memphis has been a minor league all star closer at least 3 times. Cards should either give him the ball or trade him to a team needing a closer.
Talk about a waste of $14 million!
Holland, like Lance Lynn needs to suck up their pride and go down to the minors and work on throwing consistent strikes. Odd how missing Spring Training has affect both of the very good pitchers. When a pitcher has as many or more walks as strike outs. The temporary move to the minors to regain their control is a biggie.
You nailed it, why would any professional, established or not, want to struggle on the biggest stage rather than exit for the minors for a week to ten days and more than likely come back much better. Suck it up Holland, you will still get your 14 million.
Teams have to develop their own relievers. This is what you usually get.
Phillies wasted $16 mil+ on two relievers this winter and they have to pay that next year too.
Anyone who writes a deal for Kimbrel will regret it.
Kimbrel has already signed one extension, and not a single that has had him had regretted it
True, but not at all what he was speaking to. The problem is the next deal that Kimbrel signs. He’s making now just slightly less than Holland, so starting point on negotiations will be north of there, and figure to be a minimum of 3 guaranteed years, he probably 4-5. That will be a classic FA deal written on the success of the past, but which the athlete will struggle to fulfill.
Kimbrel way pitch well into his 39s, and I certainly wish him well, but the trend in the game is to build your own closer (as Kimbrel once was with the Braves), instead of paying tens of millions of dollars for a few years which may include a loss of magic, or stints on the DL.
90% of contending teams have a player who came from outside the organization closing games. the trend has been to buy pitching, either in the open market or via trade
This just shows what what hes all about. The Cards made a mistake by not making him start in the minors until he was ready.
Holland has no reason to be on a major league roster right now.
Signing Holland was a 14 million $ “blown save” by Mozeliak! Hopefully, Holland will get things straightened out so the Cards can unload him to some desperate pennant contender by August 31st.
Right now Holland is a wasted roster space. Will it stay that way? Only time will tell
Why would anyone trade for Jon Jay?
I’d trade Greg Holland for Jay in a heart beat.
Jay has been a solid outfielder for the Royals. Look to the Nats who are desperate for outfielders after the glut of injuries they’ve had. Teams might want Jay as a cheap outfield upgrade who is capable of playing center in a pinch.
Because he gets on base and can play multiple OF positions?
Jay has been a solid player for the Royals this season. He’s doing exactly what they thought he would do, He’s getting on base and playing a decent outfield.. he’s not nearly the train wreck of an outfielder that many fans thinks he is. He’s been catching everything he can get a glove on and although his arm is not a rocket its serviceable. He’s going to be traded between now and the end of July and he’ll help some team
He has a track record of success and winning and is an exceptional teammate
i could see the mariners trading for him so dee gordon can take over at 2nd for robbie
Before anything happens Matheny needs to be fired. You NEVER being in Holland in high leverage situations! And Matheny keeps doing it
Matheny doesn’t need to be fired. The man is doing a tremendous job with what he has. Injuries have killed the Cardinals the last 4 years and through it all, Matheny has kept them competitive. When most teams would get buried because of injuries, Matheny has kept them in it until the very end.
I’m talking about how he uses the bullpen. He does a TERRIBLE job! As a fellow cardinals fan it frustrates me watching him being in Holland and every other time he comes in he gives up the game. While Matheny keeps on putting Holland in.
What’s keeping them competitive is their depth, their starting pitching, and a competitive division.
But Matheny puts them more in a position to lose than a position to win, and his handling of Greg Holland–who he apparently pushed for because he wanted a “proven closer”–is Exhibit A.
You all are right! Mathaney’s Achilles heel is still his inadequate use of his bullpen. In close games, that’s where he gets beaten or out coached. He states he has a problem of having another reliever warming up in case a player like Holland who has no control at this point. When it was obvious Holland didn’t have it after 2-3 batters, he should have been pulled.
if you look at the injuries most of whom are pitchers it becomes blatantly obvious that Matheny is the root cause. He not only overuses his pitchers but often gets them up multiple times before he brings them in, perfect example is Flaherty yesterday…extending him to 120 pitches is stupid. Next future Tommy John candidate
There’s enough room in St.Louis’ big bullpen that they can bury Holland in blowouts until he can find whatever it is he’s lost. If he can. If not, he will be DFA;d at some point, because it’s just money. But there’s no reason to panic. It seems like the market’s postseason evaluation of Holland’s worth was correct. He’s not top tier, and didn’t merit this kind of money, even on a one year deal.,
Positive news….blah, blah, blah….Nelson isn’t coming back this season and if he does he will be a shell of his 2017. Labrum injuries, particularly those with cuff and capsule damage like his are career killers.
Holland’s a real team player. You joined a team trying to win, now, in a competitive division, without spring training, without the starting catcher, and you would rather cost wins than go to the minors?
I agree. No player takes a long winter without ramping up, getting $14M and immediately begin pitching live games. His refusal to go down only punctuates the fact that STL signed the wrong guy. Cards FO can only thank themselves he isn’t there in a multi-year deal. The big winners are the Rockies who narrowly avoided bringing him back.
I wish someone could (not smart enough) research how many bad free agent signings vs good in the last 5 years.