Colorado Rockies: Is Greg Holland Guaranteed the Closer Role?
By Jason Burke
The Colorado Rockies have spent some money to help improve a MLB-worst 5.13 ERA, signing Greg Holland to a one year deal last week. But does that mean that he will definitely be the closer in the thin air that encompasses Coors Field?
Greg Holland is looking to make a comeback from Tommy John surgery, and the Colorado Rockies are happy to have him as a part of their improved pitching staff for 2017. In his one-third of an inning pitched at Coors Field in the last three years, Holland sealed a win for the Royals and didn’t allow a run, so obviously there should be no concern with him pitching in a completely new environment.
Except for the fact that he is going to the most hitter-friendly ballpark and he is coming off of a major surgery.
It’ll take some time to build up his arm strength to become Greg Holland of old, not the current version that has some question marks surrounding his name. With that in mind, shouldn’t the Rockies give the job to someone like Adam Ottavino to begin the season? Ottavino held a team-high 11.67 strikeouts per nine rate last season and his walk rate of 2.33 is definitely nothing to scoff at. He closed out seven games from August through the end of the season and held a 2.67 ERA (3.00 FIP) in his 27 innings.
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Granted, Ottavino has some injury concerns of his own after undergoing Tommy John in May of 2015, but he has dealt with the thin air and has proven to be an effective reliever with the Rockies in the past.
This should all be enough to buy Holland an extra month or two to get himself re-acclimated to pitching in the big leagues, and to the thinner air in Colorado.
There will likely be two schools of thought on such a move being made, and they both revolve around the same question: Which reliever will earn the Rockies the most wins in the early going? If Colorado wants to have a chance at the postseason in 2017, they’ll need to pile up some wins early. If they’re too far behind the pack in the NL West at midseason, Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Holland could be intriguing trade pieces at the deadline, which would essentially end any hope of a Rockies postseason run.
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So do the Colorado Rockies go with a proven closer coming off of injury to begin the season, in the hope of Holland returning to form immediately, or do they go with another solid option in Ottavino until he has a couple of rough outings while giving Holland a little extra time to get into the flow of things?
This will certainly be an interesting spring training battle to keep an eye out for.