Texas Rangers: Five landing spots for Derek Holland
By Jason Evans
Where could the Texas Rangers send pitcher Derek Holland?
Sure, we have a game six tonight for the World Series, but the hot coals are beginning to be put on the flames of the hot stove. The Texas Rangers may be the first one to make a move this off-season by shipping left-handed starter Derek Holland elsewhere.
According to Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball, the Rangers are willing to move out the left-hander. Holland has an $11 million club option for 2017 and $11.5 million club option for 2018. According to T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com, the Rangers won’t pick up the option for him. They have five days from the conclusion of the World Series in order to do so. The Rangers can fill out their rotation with Martin Perez, Yu Darvish, Cole Hamels and A.J. Griffin. Colby Lewis will be a free agent this off-season.
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Holland has dealt with a ton of injuries over the last few seasons. After throwing 213 innings in 2013, he’s thrown a combined 203 innings since then. He’s seen a drop in K rate since to just over 5 per nine innings. Per Fangraphs, his fastball velocity has dropped from 93.6 to 91.7. He’s gone away from his slider in recent years. The usage has been cut in half from 26.3% to 13.9% over the last two seasons.
So, who’s going to give up something for Holland along with paying him the money? What team is going to roll the dice on the 30 year old lefty? Here are five landing spots for Holland this off-season.