Fantasy Baseball 2018: Is the Greg Holland experiment over?

The Cardinals signed Greg Holland to be their closer for at least this season. Things haven’t gone well so far. Is it time to cut bait?

The St. Louis Cardinals have had closer issues over the last two-plus seasons. The team was successful with Trevor Rosenthal for a couple of years. The team then went with Seung-hwan Oh but last season was a disaster. As a result, the team signed Greg Holland at the start of the season to be the lock-down closer he was the season prior.

Unfortunately, he’s followed the same trend and isn’t performing anywhere close to what he was doing last season. Some fantasy owners are already jumping ship. Is it time for the rest of the industry to follow suit?

In his first appearance of the season, Holland gave up one run on four walks in 0.1 innings and suffered the loss. He has a 7.36 ERA, 2.32 WHIP, seven strikeouts and eight walks in 7.1 total innings.

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Last season, in a hitter-friendly Coors Field, Holland posted a 3.61 ERA, 1.151 WHIP, 11.0 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and 41 saves in 57.1 innings. He did struggle a bit in the final couple of months in the season but he was so dominant to start that it didn’t hurt his overall value.

Many thought that joining the Cardinals would increase the 32-year-old’s fantasy value. He joins another solid offense with good starting pitching in a pitcher-friendly Busch Stadium. He was up to 75 percent ownership in CBS Sports and 60 percent in ESPN leagues just a couple of weeks ago.

However, the Cardinals have been turning to Bud Norris for save situations, continuing the decline in Holland’s value. He received his first save opportunity on April 27 but blew that after giving up two runs on three hits without recording an out.

Norris has five saves with a 2.03 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 20 strikeouts. He is the St. Louis relief pitcher you want to own.

Unless you play in deep mixed or NL-only leagues, Holland should not be on your roster. He is giving up a lot of runs and isn’t recording saves or holds. There are plenty of other relievers available if you need to lower your ratios or pick up an extra save or two per week.

Next: Corey Seager done for the year

Norris, for example, is owned in just 47.5 percent of ESPN leagues. Keynan Middleton is still out there as well as Hector Neris. Saves can be found at any point throughout the season as managers find the hot hand. Holland currently does not provide any value.

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