Washington Nationals: Extending Greg Holland would be a shrewd move

When the Washington Nationals brought in Greg Holland, it was a low risk, high reward play. Now the reward seems to be high, they should look to extend him.

Greg Holland and the Washington Nationals had been linked to each other for some time before they actually signed a pact this summer. Now that he’s finally here, the team should look to re-sign him when the time arises.

He came to the Nationals at the lowest point of his career. He bombed out for the St. Louis Cardinals with a 7.92 ERA, with the lowest K/9 as well as the highest H/9 and BB/9 of his career.

After the Cardinals released him, he had to settle for a veteran minimum contract with the Nats. And now he looks revitalized with the D.C. team and should once again get a nice payday in the offseason.

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Since joining the team, he’s got a 0.90 ERA, cut the BB/9 rate in half and raised his K/9 rate as well. His FIP is sitting pretty at 2.15 too, so while not otherworldly, he does easily have a chance of maintaining this performance level.

He’s even quickly progressed his way through the bullpen hierarchy and looks to be in a high-leverage role for the Nationals. With Sean Doolittle out and Justin Miller struggling, he could easily be seeing save opportunities for the time being.

With his success so far in a Nats uniform and his growing comfort level, an extension makes perfect sense. It could easily benefit both sides to get something worked out early on in the off-season.

For Holland, after leaving the Colorado Rockies where he had great success for St. Louis, he may be wary about leaving a team where he’s clicking. It also depends on how comfortable he actually is with the team. It appears as though he is pretty comfortable though, and enjoying pitching again.

For the Nationals, it’s a chance to get an experienced bullpen arm to be the setup man to Doolittle for a reasonable price. He looks like he’s, at the very least, back towards his Kansas City Royals form again, so as long as the price is right, he’ll be great value for money.

In terms of a contract, we could take a look at Brandon Kintzler’s contract as something the Nats’ front office would be willing to give up. They gave Kintzler $5 in his first season, and then a team option for $10m or player option for $5m in the second season.

While Holland may well deserve a touch more cash in a deal like this, the structure is something that could work well. Say Holland were to get $8m in his first season, after getting $14m last season with the Cardinals, it would set up well for the team and player options to be $12 and $6m.

It essentially guarantees the reliever $14m over the next two seasons, with the potential to get $20 if he performs up to his ability. By comparison, some of the relievers who earn $10m on average are Brandon Morrow, Cody Allen, and Craig Kimbrel.  That’s about the company he should be in, with others that have the potential to be dominant, but still having a little cause for concern.

Greg Holland has been an instrumental part of the bullpen since arriving in August. GM Mike Rizzo now needs to make a move to keep him in the near future.