Colorado Rockies: Greg Holland rejected a deal from the Rockies

The Colorado Rockies signed Wade Davis to be their closer for the 2018 season but it sounds like that he was not their first choice.

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today on MLB Network (h/t Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post on Twitter), the Colorado Rockies made a very good offer to 2017 Rockies closer Greg Holland for the future. In fact, it was the same contract that Wade Davis and the Rockies ultimately agreed upon.

As you probably know, the free agent market still has a lot of good players on it and many teams aren’t biting on the exorbitant asking prices of players and their agents. One of those players is Greg Holland.

Considering that he has a very good relationship with Rockies pitching coach Steve Foster going back to the very beginning of his career in Kansas City, when Foster was there as well, you would think that he would oblige on signing a contract with the Rockies for that, especially when it would make him the highest paid reliever in MLB history.

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But he didn’t. And his former teammate, Wade Davis, signed for the same exact amount.

As Saunders said: “What was Holland thinking?” That’s a very good question and there are four potential answers to that:

1. He thought that he was worth more than that
2. He thought that other teams would pay more than that
3. He really wants to leave Denver
4. He flat out wasn’t thinking

I highly doubt number three is the case and would actually bet that actually is the exact opposite. Secondly, I would really like to give Holland and his agent, Scott Boras, the benefit of the doubt and say that they aren’t morons and just weren’t thinking. But, at this point, in the offseason and without having a contract and almost assuredly not getting that, I honestly can’t rule that out.

However, one of the first two seem to be the most logical.

Final Thoughts

Any way you look at it, it looks like Holland and Boras made a massive miscalculation on the market and are waiting for a team to overpay on him as a result of one their arms going down in spring training.

Next: Should the Rockies sign Logan Morrison to help the offense?

Unfortunately, it will almost certainly happen and it seems like that is the only way that Greg Holland will be signed…and it was because they made a massive miscalculation on what the market truly was for him.