Pittsburgh Pirates: Colin Holderman Trade a Win for Both Sides

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The Pittsburgh Pirates started selling before the August 2nd Trade Deadline. The first deal they made looks to be a good one so far.

Many fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates did not know whether or not the team would trade away Daniel Vogelbach. Vogelbach was an important part of this team’s offense and their clubhouse culture. However, those are also all reasons for opposing teams to want to acquire the left-handed power hitter.

The Bucs could have had Vogelbach through the 2023 season if they had wanted. However, this seems to be a pretty commonplace contractually that Ben Cherington is willing to trade his veterans. Both Taillon and Musgrove were dealt with one full year of control remaining. When moving established pieces, gone are the days of waiting until they are rentals. If a player does not fit into a team’s long-term plans then they “sell high”.

This is what the Bucs did with Daniel Vogelbach, trading him to the Mets for rookie reliever Colin Holderman At the end of the day, he is a platoon-designated hitter. He does okay against left-handed pitching but for a winning ball club, his value will lie in his success against right-handed pitching. Also, he has no position defensively. So overall he is a pretty limited player to keep on a rebuilding team. So the Bucs made the right decision trading him to the New York Mets. So far the deal has worked out well for both sides:

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So far the deal has worked out really well for both sides. The Mets have seen Vogelbach play in 15 games already and accumulate 44 at-bats. In those at-bats, he is hitting .341 while walking 18% of the time. He is still striking out a little above average at a 25% clip, but that’s to be expected from the 29-year-old power hitter.

Vogelbach had a solid first half with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He posted a .769 OPS and gave the team a 117 WrC+ which is above league average. He has done even more with the Mets, posting owning an OPS north of 1.000 and a WrC+ of 199. He was productive here, but being in a deeper lineup in Queens has made him an even better offensive presence.

Good on the Mets for going and getting a player that they knew would be a positive addition to their lineup. For the Pittsburgh Pirates they were able to acquire a former Top 20 Mets Prospect in Holderman. The hard-throwing righty had success with the Mets albeit a small sample size. He has done just as well with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Since joining the Bucs, Holderman has not allowed a single run to score. His ERA with the Mets was 2.04 through 17 innings pitched. So far for the Bucs he has thrown 6.2 innings and has lowered his ERA for the year to 1.48. If you have seen him pitch one can understand why. He is hard-throwing reaching up to 97 miles per hour so far, with sink.

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His control has been a little erratic since coming over. He has walked 3 batters and plunked 2, but that was not his standard with the Mets. That could be natural, joining a new team as a rookie probably is not the easiest thing to do. Hopefully, as he gets used to the Pittsburgh Pirates Organization he will start to settle in and develop into a legitimate back-end of the bullpen type arm. He is under team control for at least 6 more seasons.

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