How the Pirates can navigate Colin Holderman's struggles

Heading into this past week, Pittsburgh Pirates’ reliever Colin Holdeman was one of the best set-up men in the game. He had pitched 37.2 innings, allowing just seven earned runs for an ERA of just 1.67. While he had a sub-par 11.3% walk rate, he was striking out 28.7% of opponents while limiting them to an 86.2 MPH exit velocity. But over the last week, things have completely fallen apart.

Holderman has seemingly forgotten how to pitch. He has allowed the same amount of earned runs over the last week as he did for the first 37.1 innings of his season. That includes three home runs, two walks, and only one strikeout. Batters are squaring him up a ton, and his exit velocity is over ten MPH higher than it was heading into this rough patch.

Holderman being ineffective to this extent is huge for the bullpen. He has the most innings pitched of any Pirates reliever, and prior to his horrible week, had the lowest ERA as well. Now, obviously, this rough week doesn’t erase his strong work last year or the first 37.1 innings of this season, but as of right now, something different needs to be done. With that being said, the question now becomes how the Pirates are going to deal with this issue.

How will Pirates deal with Colin Holderman debacle moving forward

For now, Holderman needs to stop seeing high-leverage situations. His blow-up outing on Sunday marks his third straight game where he’s allowed the opponent to take the lead and the second straight time he’s blown the lead. While this shouldn’t be a permanent, long-term change, letting him take a step back and relax for a week or two is significantly needed.

Kyle Nicolas could be the best option to take Holderman’s role more often. The rookie reliever has a 3.11 ERA, 3.09 FIP, and 1.27 WHIP through 37.2 innings this year. He has struck out 25.4% of opponents and has only allowed a single home run all season. Nicolas’ control hasn’t been great, with a 12.4% walk rate, but his overall command has looked much better compared to last season.

An alternative is Hunter Stratton. Stratton recently returned from the IL and looks to continue his rookie season. Through 34.1 innings, he owns a 3.93 ERA, 3.08 FIP, and 1.14 WHIP. Stratton’s strikeout rate is slightly better than the league average at 23.1%, but he’s only walked 4.2% of opponents with an above-average 0.79 HR/9 rate. Stratton has also excelled in limiting hard contact, owing an 86.8 MPH exit velocity and 5.9% barrel rate.

Unfortunately, the Pirates do not have that many options to turn to right now. Carmen Mlodzinski landing on the 15-day IL puts the Pirates between a rock and a hard place, leaving Nicolas, Stratton, and Holderman as the Pirates’ best right-handed options for late-inning situations, minus David Bednar.

However, as of right now, they need to start giving Nicolas and Stratton more of the workload. Holderman has been off, and it’s showing during games. The move to Stratton and Nicolas should not be permanent, but until Holderman throws a few good innings and gets his confidence back, this should be the route the Pirates should go with through the next series or two.