New role change could help turn Colin Holderman into a bullpen weapon for Guardians 

There’s no denying the Guardians made their bullpen a priority in the offseason. While they didn’t really touch their offense (which may have been the right move), the Guardians’ front office added four arms to their new-look bullpen. 

One of those additions was Colin Holderman, who seemed like a great buy-low signing after a disappointing 2025 season with the Pirates. 

Those struggles followed him into 2026, however, as he allowed two earned runs across his first three innings of the season and was demoted to Triple-A before the Guardians could even return from their first road trip of the season. 

But he got a new lease on life on Sunday after the Guardians added him to their big league roster in place of fellow addition Shawn Armstrong, who hit the injured list on Sunday with a groin issue that popped up during the Guardians’ series opener against the Blue Jays on Friday. 

And Holderman made a great second impression on Sunday by tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings to help stop the bleeding in Cleveland’s 4-2 loss to Toronto. 

Colin Holderman passed his first test as the Guardians' longman on Sunday

It doesn’t seem like Armstrong is going to be out for long (he told reporters on Sunday that he had made “good progress”), but the Guardians can’t operate a man down while he works through that injury. 

Enter Holderman, who seems to have found a niche on the roster as a longman. 

Although the Guardians signed him to a one-year, $1.5 million deal in the offseason, he was the sacrificial lamb from the bullpen at the beginning of the season thanks to the fact that he still has two minor league options remaining. 

He’s appeared in six games for Triple-A Columbus, where he’s posted a 7.45 ERA in 9 2/3 innings (though he did record 12 strikeouts). 

The Guardians haven’t had a longman in their bullpen since they designated Kolby Allard for assignment, and it seems like there’s a chance Holderman could get some run in that role.

Not only did he hold the Blue Jays scoreless in his outing on Sunday, but he also racked up strikeouts of Ernie Clement (who entered the game in the 99th percentile in strikeout rate) and Daulton Varsho. 

But no matter how the Guardians use Holderman, it’s hard to believe he’ll fill Armstrong’s high-leverage role.

While the 35-year-old has a 4.22 ERA on the season, he’s posted 1-2-3 innings in his last two appearances and was finally starting to look like the impact reliever the Guardians were expecting him to be. 

His placement on the injured list puts even more pressure on the Guardians’ big three of Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith. It also means we could see more of Matt Festa and Tim Herrin working in higher-leverage situations.

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