{"id":110696,"date":"2025-12-11T19:48:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=110696"},"modified":"2025-12-11T19:48:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:48:59","slug":"guardians-sign-former-pirates-relief-pitcher-holderman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/12\/11\/guardians-sign-former-pirates-relief-pitcher-holderman\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardians Sign Former Pirates Relief Pitcher to One-Year Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Guardians have signed free agent right-handed relief pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holdeco01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colin Holderman<\/a> to a one-year, $1.5 million contract. Robert Murray of FanSided was first with the news. Zack Meisel of The Athletic then filled in the contract details.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_103642\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-103642\" style=\"width: 797px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-103642\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26114322_168400885_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"The Pirates activated Colin Holderman from the IL, but sent him to Triple-A.\" width=\"797\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26114322_168400885_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26114322_168400885_lowres-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26114322_168400885_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26114322_168400885_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26114322_168400885_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26114322_168400885_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26114322_168400885_lowres.jpg 1631w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 797px) 100vw, 797px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-103642\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">May 7, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Colin Holderman (35) pitches against the St. Louis Cardinals during the eighth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Guardians Sign Relief Pitcher Colin Holderman<\/h2>\n<p>Holderman, 30, was a ninth-round draft pick of the New York Mets in 2016. He got his first taste of the majors with the Mets in 2022, pitching in 15 games and posting an outstanding 2.04 ERA and 1.019 WHIP in that small sample size before being dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a deadline deal for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/vogelda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Vogelbach<\/a>. Holderman then struggled in nine games with Pittsburgh before emerging as a reliable high-leverage option the next season. In 2023, he put up a 3.86 ERA, 3.29 FIP, and 1.339 WHIP to go with 27 \u201cholds\u201d and two saves.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Free-agent reliever Colin Holderman and the Cleveland Guardians are in agreement on a one-year contract, according to sources familiar with the deal.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ByRobertMurray\/status\/1999218109790715915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 11, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Going South<\/h3>\n<p>Things began to go south for Holderman in 2024, despite registering career-bests with a 3.16 ERA and a 25.1 strikeout percentage. He hit rough patches at the wrong times. There was an ugly five-game stretch from July 28 through August 7 when he gave up 11 runs in 4 1\/3 innings and was charged with two losses and two blown saves before landing on the injured list. It was a factor in the Pirates\u2019 quick exit from the Wild Card race after making several <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/31\/pirates-2024-trade-deadline-grades\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">deadline deals<\/a> to shore up the roster.<\/p>\n<p>The 2025 season was a disaster for Holderman. In 24 games, he posted a 7.01 ERA, 5.86 FIP, and 1.948 WHIP while seeing his strikeout rate drop precipitously to 14.4 percent. There were trips to the IL \u2013 a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/06\/pirates-colin-holderman-injured-list-knee-sprain\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">right knee sprain<\/a> in April, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/20\/pirates-bad-news-holderman-gonzales\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">thumb inflammation<\/a> in May. These injuries, and perhaps Holderman trying to pitch through them, probably played a role in his ineffectiveness. However, that doesn\u2019t tell the whole story. At times, Holderman didn\u2019t look like a confident pitcher. It was as if each return to the mound was like returning to the scene of an accident. With Holderman entering arbitration, a process that guarantees a hefty salary increase for any player who can walk in a straight line, the Pirates opted to non-tender him.<\/p>\n<h3>What Cleveland is Getting<\/h3>\n<p>Holderman features a six-pitch mix that includes a sinker, sweeper, cutter, four-seamer, slider, and splitter. The sinker and four-seamer are his hardest pitches, each averaging around 97 mph, although the latter is more of a \u201cshow-me\u201d pitch. Last season, the splitter was a late addition to his repertoire, while he also dusted the mothballs off his slider and reintroduced it after not throwing one for two years.<\/p>\n<p>Holderman is controllable through 2028 and still has minor league options remaining. Thus, it\u2019s a more-than-reasonable gamble for Cleveland. It will be a bargain if the Guardians can unlock the form he showed in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Guardians have signed free agent right-handed relief pitcher Colin Holderman to a one-year, $1.5 million contract. Robert Murray of FanSided was first with the news. Zack Meisel of The Athletic then filled in the contract details. Guardians Sign Relief Pitcher Colin Holderman Holderman, 30, was a ninth-round draft pick of the New York [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":99697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1071,35],"tags":[5685,2995],"class_list":["post-110696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guardians","category-mlb","category-news","tag-colin-holderman","tag-daniel-vogelbach"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110696"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110705,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110696\/revisions\/110705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}