Have Pirates fans seen the last of Colin Holderman as 2025 struggles worsen?

Colin Holderman is running out of time to keep a spot on the roster in Pittsburgh. He just landed on the injured list for the second time this season, but it feels like he may have been tossed aside anyway sometime soon if he'd stayed healthy.

The Pirates have trusted Holderman for a while now, and at times, he has been elite. From midsummer 2024 to present, though, he has been unreliable, a stretch that grows longer everyday. His pitch mix remains strong on the surface, but he can't seem to avoid hard contact. In fact, he now gives up hard hits over 50% of the time at a 52% rate.

Holderman's control over his pitches has easily been the root of his problems. Right now, he is walking guys at a 14.9% rate. Even his elite 33.1% chase rate is not saving him from free passes, as his strikeout rate is identical to the walk rate.

Opponents are batting .328 with three home runs against him this season. All of this has culminated with a downright poor 9.00 ERA and 6.82 FIP. The Pirates just cannot keep giving Holderman these opportunities, given the results. Forget "low-leverage". There's no room for this in a major league bullpen.

Colin Holderman's Pirates career may be done following new injury stint

Optimists can tout his outstanding Stuff+ ranking of 118, but he just is not getting things done. Given how unreliable he has been, it's hard to envision a world where he works it out in Triple-A like David Bednar did. He may need a change of scenery and if the Pirates could even get something out of him, they should take it, rather than just DFAing him for no return.

Holderman won't get an update on his finger injury until the team travels to Arizona. This makes it seem like there is not a lot of urgency in this process, and that he'll be out for a little longer than 15 days. Whenever he does get healthy, though, the Pirates should not mess around with throwing him back into the big league bullpen. Let him rehab it out in Triple-A. When he is done with that, option him to stay there. He has three options to work with, so Pittsburgh might as well use them if there is no one that will take him.

To prevent the Pirates from falling even further below .500, Holderman should not be in Pittsburgh's plans when he comes off the injured list - at least not until he proves himself in Triple-A. The way he has pitched, they probably should have moved on from him by now. Maybe they will do exactly that following his injured list stint.