ANOTHER ONE: Cleveland Guardians SIGN RHP Colin Holderman, ADD to Bullpen Once More

ANOTHER ONE: Cleveland Guardians SIGN RHP Colin Holderman, ADD to Bullpen Once More

The Guardians said at the winter meetings they were targeting relief help because they didn’t have a lot of reliable arms in the bullpen and that continues to be the way they go. Their next free agent signing is 6’6 Ken Holderman, a 30-year-old reliever who has spent his entire career in Pittsburgh, 11th round pick. Uh, three good years of performance, maybe two if you don’t want to throw out 2024. 2022 and 2023 were really good years for Holdman. A very solid reliever. um pretty good in terms of missing bats. Has had control issues. Had some thumb issues a year ago, so he’s injured. Was a terrible year for him. An RA over seven, a hip over five. Um a guy who throws hard up in the upper 90s and has a really good sweeper that has been really his only effective pitch to be honest with you. Uh it’s kind of hard to believe that Colin Holderman has had three successful years, two really good years, uh 22 and 23. 24 was just okay on one really good pitch. The data has never been good. He throws a cutter and a sinker. Both have been hit pretty hard in his career. Last year, his uh sweeper got batted around pretty good. So, Cleveland must see Holderman on a one-year deal uh reported by Robert Murray of Fan Cited that they can maybe fix the fast ball and the sweeper is still a good pitch for him. Stuff plus metrics have always loved Colin Holderman stuff. They love the forseam. Uh they love the cutter, the sinker not so much, or I’m sorry, the sinker. They like the cutter not so much. Sweeper’s always been a great pitch for him. Um so the metrics there are good. He has always missed bats, whether it’s in the zone or getting chases. He in 2024 did a great job of suppressing hard contact. Last year he was hit much harder. Um got a lot of ground balls last year. Guardians. This is another project reliever. You know, they’ve added Connor Brogden, Colin Holderman, Pton Powell. Um, this is not a signing I would expect them to be spending a ton of money on, nor would I think this is the end of their bullpen acquisitions because they have yet to sign a reliever that has a better track record. So far, they’ve added a lot of projects, a lot of high-end, high ceiling guys, but guys with very um iffy floors so far. So, I would expect they need to add more. If they aren’t targeting more, that’s a problem. But Connor Brogden, Pton Powell, and now Colin Holderman have been added to this bullpen for 2026. We’ll talk all about it on Friday’s Lockdown Guardians. Make sure you are