Yankees, Padres, Pirates Have Reached Out To Derek Holland

Michael Martini, the agent for left-hander Derek Holland, said earlier this week that his client is intrigued by the Pirates, and Holland himself has expressed interest in a return to the Rangers. Now, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram adds some more detail to Holland’s market. According to Wilson, both the Yankees and Padres have reached out to Holland to express some early interest as well.

Each of the three teams in question could use at least one arm, and the Padres in particular could stand to add multiple starting pitchers this offseason. With literally no guaranteed contracts on the book for the 2017 campaign, the Padres could reasonably afford to beat out any interested party on a one-year deal if they see fit and believe enough in Holland’s ability to rebound from three seasons that have been largely lost to shoulder and knee injuries. The 30-year-old Holland is a known commodity for San Diego GM A.J. Preller, who was an assistant GM with the Rangers during the earlier stages of Holland’s career (including his peak year in 2013). As it stands, the Friars’ rotation will contain a hopefully healthy Tyson Ross and last year’s Rule 5 selection Luis Perdomo, but there’s little certainty beyond that point. Martini spoke this weekend about a desire to have a guaranteed starting spot, and the Padres could most certainly provide that.

The Yankees, on the other hand, already have a rotation that is full of injury question marks. While CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda improbably combined to start 93 games for the 2016 Yankees, each of those hurlers has dealt with significant injury problems in as recently as 2014-15, and the Yankees can’t reasonably expect that they’ll again be entirely healthy next year. Beyond that group is a quartet of young right-handers that have shown promise but haven’t established themselves as big league starters: Luis Severino, Chad Green, Luis Cessa and Bryan Mitchell. Swingman Adam Warren, too, could conceivably start some games in 2017, though it seems likelier that he’ll open next year in the bullpen.

MLBTR’s Charlie Wilmoth already looked at the case for the Bucs to sign Holland this weekend, noting that there appears to be at least one open spot behind Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon. In the mix will be top prospect Tyler Glasnow, rebound candidate Drew Hutchison and youngsters Chad Kuhl, Steven Brault and Trevor Williams. The Bucs are known as a team that has turned around the careers of many pitchers, including A.J. Burnett, Francisco Liriano, Jason Grilli, Mark Melancon, Edinson Volquez, J.A. Happ and Ivan Nova.