The non-tender deadline provides myriad teams with optimal solutions to their biggest weaknesses. The sheer volume of new free agents should have teams like the Angels licking their lips, as they could cheaply acquire bona fide MLB players to round out their less-than-ideal rosters. The Angels needs are quite clear — they need left-handed hitting, outfielders and both starting and relief pitching.
It just so happens that the Pittsburgh Pirates semi-shockingly non-tendered a pitcher who could be a great come-back story for the Angels next year.
Pirates non-tendered an optimal reclamation project for the Angels’ bullpen
There’s nothing better than adding a player on the margins who is a clear change-of-scenery candidate, and Colin Holderman is a prime example of that. Holderman is undoubtedly a reclamation project, as the 30-year-old went from a premier set-up man (he got holds, man) to spending a chunk of the 2025 season with the Pirates’ Triple-A team. The Pirates were one of the worst teams in baseball last season, and they still could not find a spot on the roster for Holderman despite his stuff and prior effectiveness. The Pirates reliever was non-tendered as he was owed $1.7 million next year.
From 2023-2024, Holderman posted a 3.52 ERA, 3.75 FIP, 1.32 WHIP and 9.56 K/9 in 107.1 innings pitched. Crucially, Holderman has a 97 MPH sinker in his arsenal to pair with a frisbee sweeper and cement-mixer cutter. If any pitching coach can mold a player with this kind of stuff, it’s Mike Maddux. Holderman is the type of pitcher that leaps off the screen, and Maddux could hone him in and get the most out of him next season.
If the Angels can add a premier closer (like Ryan Helsley), a pitcher like Holderman would slot in perfectly next to Ben Joyce, Robert Stephenson, Brock Burke and some combination of Chase Silseth, Sam Bachman and José Fermin (not to mention any other reliever the Angels add this offseason). The Angels do have a large surplus of money to throw around following the Taylor Ward trade, but are likely reticent to hand a multi-year contract to a reliever following the Stephenson debacle the last couple of years. Cheap additions like Holderman, or Jacob Webb, and other buy-low relievers seem to be the most pragmatic plan for the Angels in order to re-stock their reliver corps and still add impact position players to the 2026 roster.