Wednesday, November 9, 2016

So What About Derek Holland?


We discussed it and discussed it already this week on the blog and we’ll go over it again today. The New York Yankees need to add starting pitching this offseason if they plan on competing and the free agent well looks pretty dry. One starting pitcher that may interest the Yankees was added to the fold though when the Texas Rangers decided to decline the team option on his contract for the 2017 season. Should and will the Yankees be interested?

The Rangers decided that they would rather pay Holland his $1.5 million to walk into free agency rather than pay him his $11 million option and some might argue they made that decision for good reason. Holland has missed significant time over the past three seasons due to injury and has been placed on the 60-Day DL in consecutive years after missing the better part of two months with a shoulder inflammation injury in 2016. That mixed with the fact that Holland gives up the long ball a little too much for my liking may be the ultimate deciding factor of whether the Yankees will or should be interested in my opinion.

Holland was a part of the Texas Rangers World Series teams in 2010 and 2011 so the postseason and World Series experience is there but is that enough to ignore the injury history of the past three seasons? Holland has shown an ability to pitch, not only pitch but be dominant at times, and could be a huge low-risk high reward type guy for the Yankees. There is no such thing as a bad minor league deal but the problem is I can’t see Holland accepting one with the starting pitching market as thin as it is this season.

So should the Yankees sign Holland and do I think they will sign Holland? No and No. Again, if he wants to take a minor league deal and try to feed his family off the $1.5 million the Rangers are already paying him, fine. Sign me up. Load up the contract with incentives and give the man his $10 million or whatever the going rate is for middle-of-the-rotation type pitchers is these days. If not, and I’m sure he will find guaranteed money elsewhere, then I won’t lose sleep over it. Holland isn’t a game changer but I would be foolish to completely dismiss a better season from him in 2017 than he has had over the last three seasons.


That’s where I stand. What say you?

4 comments:

  1. REJUVENATED.
    America has been saved.
    Let's get back up off the ground, and move forward smartly.
    Along the way...drain the swamp, and send a cleaning service
    into the White House.
    Good to be back.............patrick.

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    Replies
    1. I thought Trump was going to lose this one, once in awhile! Glad to see we still have a country! One on the way back, I hope and expect!
      Maybe he has shown the Reps', that they can win but not by laying down when the other party gets the dirty innuendos and out right lies going. We have to fight for what we want!
      Most of us want a way to improve our lifestyle and raise our loved ones in the way we want...not the way we are told by the very few in charge of each party.
      Thanks to all outside of New York and California that did the right thing! Voted for a way to make this Country what many have fought and died for over the 250+ years we have been "The United States of America"!

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  2. The world and the country is definitely about to change. We all wanted change, either with Trump or Obama. Different change but change is change nonetheless. I think it will be a sight for sore eyes personally.

    People think Presiden't have way more power than they actually do. It's crazy.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)