The Texas Rangers have been without Yu Darvish for most of the season. A.J. Griffin started the season hot, then he went on the disabled list. Colby Lewis left the game early Tuesday night with some kind of arm problem, but we are being told that he is alright, just like we were told about Yu. And now, Texas Rangers struggling left handed starter Derek Holland is going on the disabled list for the third season in a row. Since starting 33 games in 2013, Derek has only started 29 games combined in the last two plus seasons. His ERA in 2013 was 3.42, and his ERA in hist last 29 starts is 3.86, but if you take out 2014 where he only started six games, his ERA is well over four.
This is not the first time that Derek Holland has tried to fight his way through an injury, a lot of major league players do for fear of losing their jobs. In his last few starts, Derek has been terrible, with seemingly no control of his fastball. Rangers fans knew that either something was wrong with him, or he was just losing his edge. He has always been erratic as a starting pitcher.
So what does the Derek Holland injury mean for the rotation? It means that Nick Martinez, who has had success at the major league level before, has been called up to fill Holland’s spot in the rotation. The rotation now looks like this:
Nick Martinez
A.J. Griffen
Colby Lewis or Ceasar Ramos
A far cry from the rotation that was expected at the beginning of the season. If you would have polled Texas Rangers fans at the outset, they would have thought the rotation would look more like this:
Cole Hamels
Yu Darvish
Derek Holland
Colby Lewis
Chi Chi has struggled in Round Rock (ERA over 5), and now Yu and Derek and possibly Colby are all injured. Yet somehow the Texas Rangers have found their way to the best record in the American League, and the second best record in the Majors. So what should the team do? Should they trade some of their minor league talent for another starting pitcher? In my opinion, no. The Texas Rangers have a ton of talent in the minors, they have Nick Martinez, Ceasar Ramos, Chi Chi Gonzalez, and a slew of other talented pitchers in which to pool from. They do not need to overreact.
I for one am glad that it was an injury that caused Derek Holland to be pitching so poorly this season. It explains a whole lot about the way he has struggled.
4 thoughts on “What the Derek Holland Injury Means”