Houston Astros: Five value free agents who can elevate the team in 2019

Derek Holland, LHP

Derek Holland has had only a handful of good years compared to a lot more bad years. That being said, he, like Morton, has dealt with a plethora of injuries throughout his career that has hampered his effectiveness. But, when healthy, he’s been largely effective.

Holland has only thrown over 170 innings in a season four times in his career. 2018 was one of those years and the first time since 2013. As a matter of fact, the four best years of his career came in these four seasons.

Holland has a four-pitch arsenal that consists of a four-seam fastball, a power slider, a curveball, and a changeup. Historically, he has leaned heavily on his fastball but has begun to wean off of it in recent years. Holland’s slider is his best pitch as it has good movement and great velocity.

The Houston Astros could bring in Holland limit his innings and pitch count per start, as they did with Morton, in order to keep him healthy all year long. They could also look to tweak his pitching splits to capitalize on the stuff he has and look to continue building on the career-high strikeouts per nine innings he had in 2018. Upping his slider usage could continue to do that.

Holland could likely be had for cheaper than Gonzalez and something more along the lines of what Morton got a couple years ago. That would be about two years in between $15 and $20 million total.