Pirates reliever Colin Holderman likely to start season on IL

The Pittsburgh Pirates are slowly seeing their bullpen deteriorate as the regular season gets closer and closer. The team has already placed right-handed reliever Dauri Moreta on the 60 day injured list after undergoing Tommy John Surgery last week. Then there is the case of 2023 breakout reliever Carmen Mlodzinski who has not pitched in 10 days with tightness in his forearm. That typically is not good news either.

However, there is now another pitcher to add to the list of bullpen arms that will not be ready for the start of the 2024 season. According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, right-hander Colin Holderman will likely be starting the season on the 15-day Injured List. Holderman is expected to be the right-handed setup man for David Bednar.

There is semi good news in this for the Pirates and their fans.

Holderman stated that he essentially lost 15 pounds when he was dealing with a recent illness. This is the same illness that put Andrew McCutchen out for some time and one that also made Paul Skenes miss a start. So this was clearly going through camp. Why it is semi good news is simply because this is not an arm injury.

Losing Moreta and likely Mlodzinski to arm injuries is always a tough thing to deal with. Sometimes arms end up being fine other times it is a lingering issue or a serious issue. There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to this and typically the end result is never good. So the fact that Holderman is just missing because he needs to build himself back up after being sick is a reason for optimism. There should not be any hiccups or extra time missed during his rehab. So unlike some of the other arms that have gone down in the bullpen thus far, Holderman should just miss about 10 games and then be back.