San Francisco Giants: Derek Holland to the Bullpen is the Wrong Move

The San Francisco Giants have some “issues” to sort out when both Cueto and Samardzija come back. But their first move, moving Derek Holland to the Bullpen, is easily the worst move they’ve made this year.

Nobody expected Derek Holland to do what he did for the San Francisco Giants this year. He’s been their best pitcher, save Madison Bumgarner, and has surpassed any expectation of him that was set out before the season. Yet for some reason, unbeknownst to us, they’ve decided to pull him from the rotation.

Before the Giants took the field in a miserable 8-1 loss to the Rockies on Tuesday night, they announced that Johnny Cueto would return to the rotation on Thursday evening. That part is nice. But the annoying part is that they’ve decided to put him in over Derek Holland.

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Let’s take a look at the four non established guys, and what they’ve done over the last month:

So instead of removing the guy out there who has been the worst at innings per outing, worst WHIP, worst ERA, worst literally everything on this list of important pitching stats is FIP, they chose to remove one of the best.

When Cueto and Samardzija come back into it full swing, there are two spots left. It would be the smart move to put the two best pitchers over the last couple weeks in those spots. That would, statistically, be Derek Holland and Dereck Rodriguez. Suarez and Stratton both have options remaining and could use some more polishing, clearly. Holland and D-Rod look like they’ve got very good major league stuff. They need to stick in the rotation.

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The move of Derek Holland is pretty illogical for the Giants, and this move has me perplexed. I’ll gladly eat crow if it turns out they know what they’re doing. But right now, this move looks dumb, and that’s the first time in a very long time I’ve said the Giants front office has made a dumb move.