Colin Holderman Has Excelled in Mets Bullpen

The latest of additions to the Mets bullpen is not a name talent evaluators mentioned often in recent years.

Colin Holderman – a 2016 ninth round draft pick out of an Illinois junior college – only finds himself in Queens after a slew of injuries have hampered the Mets bullpen. With Trevor May and Sean Reid-Foley both on the 60-day injured list, the Mets called up Holderman from Triple-A Syracuse in mid-May.

Since making his Major League debut on May 15 against the Mariners, Holderman has been almost flawless. Over his six innings of work, the only run he’s allowed to score was the ghost runner in extra frames against the Cardinals. Otherwise, Holderman has allowed just four hits, one walk, and has struck out an impressive seven batters, all while maintaining that perfect 0.00 ERA.

“Colin is a guy who caught my eye early in the spring,” said manager Buck Showalter. “He’s kind of figuring it out as he goes. You take two steps forward, one step back with those guys, and maybe by some point in the season you have something.”

For the rookie, there have not been many steps in the wrong direction yet, but that’s not due to a lack of opportunity. Although he’s pitched at the tail end of two blowout Met wins (and one lopsided game that did not go the Mets way in San Francisco), he’s also closed out three games, displaying a sense of pose not typical for a pitcher with his lack of top-level experience.

Yet it was his outing on May 23 against the Giants – one in which Holderman pitched two scoreless innings but was removed before the ninth inning and a possible three-inning save opportunity – that perhaps most revealed his advanced maturity as a baseball player.

Pulled before the final inning so that he would not be over-exhausted for the rest of the series, Holderman took that as a sincere sign of respect from Showalter.

“It made me feel amazing,” said Holderman on Buck’s decision. “They wanted me ready for [another game]. If I would’ve gone three, that probably would’ve shut me down for the series. Whatever he says, goes. He’s the boss. Good idea.”

The first-year Mets’ skipper’s decision paid off, as Holderman pitched a perfect sixth inning with two strikeouts just two days later.

A large part of Holderman’s success has been because of his dominant sinker, a 96-97 mph pitch which Holderman has thrown 48 times already (60.8% of his pitches). In mostly relying on the sinker, Holderman has gotten a ridiculous 78.6% of the batted balls against him to result in a grounder. For reference, Mets pitchers as a team last season had an average ground ball rate of just 42.5%.

As baseball evolves, wins have become less and less meaningful of a statistic for evaluating a pitcher’s success. But in the most high-leverage situation he’s appeared in thus far for the Mets, Holderman left with his first win in the big leagues, all while limiting the damage to just one hit, allowing the lone Cardinal run of the inning to score on Albert Pujols‘ double play grounder.

So when Pete Alonso crushed a two-run walk-off homer to win the game for the Mets, Holderman had something to show for it in the final box score. And in a spot when he could have allowed the Cardinals to blow the lead wide open, Holderman retired Pujols, one of the greatest hitters of this generation.

That was just the tip of the iceberg for the newest Met reliever. Deep down, he understands what he’s capable of doing in the not-too-distant future.

“I have the confidence and stuff to [pitch in the late-inning circle of trust], said Holderman of making an impact in those high-leverage situations. “It’s a prove-it game now. Keep doing it on a daily basis and see what happens.”