Colin Holderman's quietly become top asset from Guardians’ bullpen resurrecting 

At first, it looked like Colin Holderman was going to be a misfire for the Guardians’ front office. 

After inking Holderman to a one-year, $1.5 million contract in the offseason, Holderman limped out of the gate and was sent down to Triple-A before the team could even return home from their season-opening road trip. 

But he got a new lease on life at the end of April thanks to struggles from pretty much everyone in the Guardians’ bullpen, and has become a stabilizing force in the time since. 

It may be hard to believe, but Holderman has become one of the most important pitchers in a bullpen that’s still trying to reach the same levels it did last season. 

Now the biggest thing for the Guardians to figure out is what role is best for Holderman. 

After working multiple innings in his first five appearances back with the Guardians, Holderman’s been a one-inning weapon over the past week. He picked up his first hold of the season Friday with 2/3 of an inning in the Guardians’ win over the Twins on Friday. 

Colin Holderman has been the best pitcher in Guardians’ bullpen over the past month 

He’s allowed just one run in 11 2/3 innings with 14 strikeouts since being called up. Not too shabby. 

While Holderman was serving a valuable role as the Guardians’ longman after Kolby Allard struggled in the role early in the season, it seems like he was so good in the role that he’s worked his way into a high-leverage role. 

The good news for the Guardians is that they have two solid options to backfill Holderman’s role in Peyton Pallette and the newly-promoted Franco Aleman. 

Not only does Pallette need to stay on the Guardians’ roster all season, but he can also work multiple innings. Meanwhile, Aleman worked two innings in his big league debut and still needs a bit more work before he can be trusted as a high-leverage arm. 

The two of them can handle four-ish innings if needed, which frees up Holderman to continue to get more work as a single-inning weapon. 

Holderman has struck out nearly 32% of the batters he’s faced this season, and also ranked in the 80th percentile in expected ERA (3.07) and expected batting average (.210), so there’s some substance to his success. 

That success has come at the perfect time considering Hunter Gaddis has a 7.88 ERA in eight innings this season and has yet to look like himself since returning from the injured list. 

Shifting Holderman into a seventh inning role would not only take some pressure off Gaddis (who could work his way back in lower-leverage roles), but also give the Guardians a strong late-game trio of Holderman, Erik Sabrowski and Cade Smith. 

Fellow offseason acquisition Connor Brogdon has already flamed out and Shawn Armstrong’s on the injured list, so Holderman’s the lone active member from the Guardians’ offseason “spending spree.” 

If he’s able to keep things up, he could end up becoming one of the most valuable members of the Guardians’ pen.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow