Derek Holland and Keone Kela officially became free agents on Wednesday, likely signaling the end of their tenures as pitchers for the Pittsburgh Pirates and creating a pair of openings in their bullpen.
Sunday is the deadline for MLB teams to tender a qualifying offer to their free agents, which will be in the $18.9 million range. The Pirates have no intention of doing that, and will receive no compensation if Holland or Kela choose to sign elsewhere.
The Pirates had high hopes for Kela when they traded prospects Taylor Hearn and Sherten Apostel to the Texas Rangers at the 2018 deadline, viewing the right-hander as a setup man for All-Star closer Felipe Vazquez.
Kela, however, had a turbulent tenure with the Pirates. In 2019, he was suspended 10 games by MLB for his role in a benches-clearing brawl with the Cincinnati Reds and, later, for two games by the Pirates for an altercation with front-office staffer Hector Morales.
With Vazquez jailed on charges involving a minor, the Pirates named Kela their closer at the start of spring training. But he missed all of summer camp after testing positive for covid-19, then dealt with forearm inflammation. He pitched only two innings in three appearances before being shut down for the remainder of the season. Kela, 27, appeared in 51 games over parts of three seasons with the Pirates, going 2-1 with a 2.49 ERA and recording one save.
Holland, 34, joined the Pirates as a non-roster invitee to spring training and made the starting rotation after injuries to Chris Archer and Steven Brault. Holland made five starts before moving to the bullpen, and was 1-3 with a 6.86 ERA in 12 games. He surrendered 12 home runs, giving up homers to four of the first five batters in an 11-5 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 8 at PNC Park.
A 12-year veteran who has a career 79-81 record and pitched in the World Series with the Texas Rangers, Holland embraced his role as a leader for the young pitching staff. And the Pirates enjoyed his quirky side, as he placed cardboard cutouts around PNC Park in tribute to actor Rob Schneider and drew national attention for his custom cleats, especially a pair that honored Fred Rogers as he warmed up to the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood theme song.
In late September, Holland expressed interest in returning to the Pirates.
“I can’t really speak on decisions of what they need to go after. That’s more of a Shelton and Ben kind of thing, to be honest,” Holland said of Pirates manager Derek Shelton and general manager Ben Cherington. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’d love to be back here and continue to help these guys and try to provide as much knowledge as I can with these guys and help them out.”
