This weekend, a St. Louis Cardinals fan told me that I could have Greg Holland back. I never thought these words would ever come out of my mouth, but thank you uber-agent Scott Boras.
This past off season, the Colorado Rockies offered closer Greg Holland the largest ever contract for a relief pitcher at 3 years/$52 million. Thanks to Holland’s agent Scott Boras advice, he declined the offer thinking that the market would lead to an even larger payday. The Rockies moved on from Holland and we’re able to sign former Chicago Cubs’ closer Wade Davis to the same record setting deal.
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Unfortunately for Holland, the market for closers never materialized. He waited and waited until the season had already started before eventually signing a one year/$14 million deal with the St. Louis Cardinals on March 31st.
Due to missing all of spring training, it has been a slow start for Holland to say the least. Thus far Holland has an ugly ERA of 7.11 in 9 appearances over 6.1 innings of work. In his ’18 debut, he was on the hook for the loss as he recorded only one out while walking 4 batters leading to the winning run. Then this Saturday, he blew his first save of the year, when he surrendered 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th against the Pirates without getting a single out.
As for Wade Davis, he has so far lived up to his record setting contract. He is 10 for 11 in save opportunities with a 2.38 ERA and in his only blown save, the Rockies came back to win the game in extra innings. So once again, thank you Scott Boras for letting your ego get the best of you.
Since we are on the subject of Rockies offseason departures:
Jonathan Lucroy signed with the Oakland Athletics this winter to one year/$6.5 million deal. He has struggled early on hitting .239/.316/.296 with 5 RBIs and no home runs. However, everything hasn’t been too bad for Lucroy as he was on the receiving end as A’s Sean Manaea threw the first no-hitter of the 2018 season.
As for Mark Reynolds, he signed with the Washington Nationals on April 12th to a minor league deal. Reynolds has yet to make it onto the Nationals’ roster.
Next: The state of the Rockies bullpen
It looks like Rockies fans have to thank Scott Boras for taking more than just Holland not signing, but a few of them.