Unsurprisingly, the Royals have interest in re-signing free-agent reliever Greg Holland, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com reports.
Holland was a highly accomplished part of the Royals’ bullpen from 2010-15, during which he made two All-Star appearances. However, the Tommy John surgery Holland underwent in the last of those seasons prevented him from partaking in the Royals’ run to a championship and cost him the entire 2016 campaign. Holland had a nice rebound effort with the Rockies in 2017, but his career largely went off the rails from 2018-19, which he divided among the Cardinals, Nationals and Diamondbacks.
To his credit, after settling for a minor league contract in a return to the Royals last winter, Holland emerged as one of the game’s best bounce-back stories in 2020. The 34-year-old ended the season with a sterling 1.91 ERA/2.52 FIP and went a perfect 6-for-6 in save opportunities over 28 1/3 innings, also posting 9.85 K/9 and a 51.4 percent groundball rate. While walks were a serious issue for Holland in the wake of his TJ procedure, he only issued 2.22 free passes per nine this past season, further leading to hope that he’s just about all the way back at this point.
With the offseason now underway, Holland should quickly go from someone who couldn’t land a guaranteed deal last winter to a sought-after commodity. He’s not in the Liam Hendriks/Trevor May/Trevor Rosenthal class of free-agent relievers in terms of potential earning power, but Holland should do pretty well for himself on a one- or two-year deal in the coming months.
I’d be really surprised if Holland wants to play for the Royals. After the season he just put up, there will be a number of playoff teams that would be interested in his services. I just don’t see him taking a deal to stay in Kansas City when he could go play for a much better team.
They gave him a chance when no one else would? They are the team he’s had literally all but one of his successful seasons with?
True, but are they close to postseason contention? Would they simply flip him at the deadline anyway, or stubbornly hang on to him like they have with Merrifield and Perez, and did with Kennedy (who is now a free agent)?
KC is the new Cincinnati: No clear plan on how to successfully conduct a rebuild–or break out of one.
Sorry I can’t hear your BS from the sounds of the two pennants from this decade flapping in the breeze in LF at The K. The Reds haven’t been to the World Series in 40 years.
Trading Salvy was never going to happen. You trade him, and you’d have to start looking for a new city to move the franchise to. Kennedy staying wasn’t for a lack of trying. No one wanted him or his salary. Merrifield was the only one of those three they could have traded.
Sorry, math is hard. 30 years*
Except for that one they won 30 years ago.
Stevil, you have no idea what you are talking about. They have a clear path…that’s why they have been drafting college starting pitchers to build their starting rotation. They will have an AMAZING ROTATION in a matter of 1-2 years!!! You take away the Royals 3-10 start and they have a .500 season!! Amazing what quality starting pitchers and a great bullpen can do!! That is a lot better than the 100 loss seasons the previous 2 years! They were a lot better this year and will be even better next year because I think they spend a little money on a veteran bat or two!!
TLB, you absolutely should enjoy them. It’s going to be a while before you have that privilege again.
JDC, KC’s pitching prospects aren’t in the same camp as SD, Detroit, Tampa, Seattle, etc. Lacy is promising, Lynch and Bubic are interesting, but their not likely going to be frontline starters. Keller was good and Singer was fine, but those names combined aren’t likely going to be enough. Then there’s everywhere else. Lots of questions with KCs fielders and not a lot of answers on the farm after Witt and possibly Peña–who’s a good 4-5 years out.
Any team can play bad baseball and eventually stack up enough top prospects to peak interest and even make some noise. But KC is taking an unnecessary scenic route that they can’t afford to take, because they need to rely on development more than most teams as they simply don’t have the resources to fill holes with free agent stars, nor can they afford to trade top prospects for immediate help. And to their credit, they’ve had success with development before.
But it’s a different story now. They should have sold high on their players with value, took chances on more rebound candidates (like they did with Holland–but flipped them while they could have), and acquired or offered opportunity to players squeezed out of other organizations like SD did with Cronenworth and Profar; Seattle did with Nola and Moore. Easier said than done, but still…
Don’t bet on KC investing significant money in free agents. They’re not close and money is tight. Their farm ranks in the bottom half of baseball and many current MLB players are trending down. That’s not a good recipe for success.
I’m not trying to knock KC fans, I’m just expressing how I see it.
what? How is Aca – Singer – Keller – Bubic – Kowar – Lynch not as good as any young SP contingent in the league? they can contend next year, and that is why.
DarkSide, they don’t have a lot of plus pitches among them and there is very little experience.
And it’s not that I think they’ll be bad, they simply don’t have the kind of ceiling that you seem to think they do.
There was plenty of interest in Kennedy. KC would’ve needed to eat salary, but he could have been moved.
And trading Salvy… c’mon. KC has watched plenty of players (even stars) leave via free agency. Fans might not like it, but they’d understand it.
I mean, it is definitely possible if he chooses to stay with the Royals because he likes their organization, but he will definitely get offers from better clubs around MLB based on the numbers he just put up this season. If he wants to win, then he will definitely have better options.
People so often think that contention is the sole factor in where a player wants to sign. Job security/role security, money, looking a certain city, teammates can all have more to do with it
Money is obviously important, but I don’t think that will be an issue with Holland because I don’t think the Royals will spend money this offseason. Really the only reason he would stay is if he likes the city/organization. He will get opportunities to play with playoff contending teams this winter.
And BBQ. You forgot the barbecue.
What do you guys think he gets? I know the markets a little different then last year but something like 1 year 7 to 9mm. Surely, no one will give him 2 years…..Well I mean the Rox probably would (again) But maybe they’ll stay away from multi year deals for 32+ year old relievers for a while.
Another former Cardinals to thrive outside of St. Louis.
He was a Royal before he was a Cardinal
Holland’s Cardinals struggles were a product of signing late, just like his improvement with WSH was not a factor of specificall being in Washington.
As long as Harvey and Kennedy are NOT coming back I’m fine with that.
PLEASE SIGN ALEX WOOD!!!
I would bank on neither of those guys coming back. Wood would be a nice fit in that rotation though. Still young and can help mentor the young guys like Bubic and Singer
i think if Wood can ever stay healthy again he’ll be a huge steal. he’s always been great when healthy. I hoped last offseason Philly would sign him and I hope so again.
Longtime Royals fan living in Phoenix. Holland was decent worth the Dbacks early. Time went on he got worse. 28.5 innings this year isn’t a full year. No way I spend a lot of $$$ on someone like him. Eppler is out in California that would of been a sure signing for Holland.
Exactly. I think before Holland fell off a cliff in the Arizona desert, his numbers were probably pretty equal to the ones he put up with KC this season. Don’t believe any team will fall for these inflated stats.
Philly needs to pick up one of these closing caliber guys. Colome, Hendricks, Rosenthal, Holland…somebody who should be able to throw in the 9th.
Or all of them
Seems like half of MLBs closers are FAs this year. Good time to bargain hunt.