Derek Holland adds colorful character to Pirates, who have lefty penciled in as a starter

When Derek Holland arrived as a nonroster invitee to spring training with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the 33-year-old left-hander did so with the hope he could make the team for a 12th major league season.

Whether it was in the starting rotation or the bullpen didn’t matter much to Holland, who split last season between being a starter for the San Francisco Giants and a reliever for the Chicago Cubs.

A strong showing in the spring combined with Chris Archer’s season-ending surgery and Steven Brault’s shutdown for a sore shoulder made Holland a front-runner to both make the Opening Day roster and become one of the four pitchers penciled in to the starting rotation.

Not that he took any comfort in that.

“I still have that same mindset now,” Holland said. “I still have not been told I’m on this team, so I have to continue to have that mindset that I had going into spring training of, ‘I’ve got to make this team.’ There’s no worrying about anybody else but myself right now. It’s making sure that I can get on this team. …

“So I’ve continued to have the mindset of starter first, reliever second. And if it falls that way, that’s how it goes. I can’t go in here and say that I’m the starter. I’ve got to earn this.”

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Not only is Holland the longest-tenured MLB player on the Pirates, he also is their oldest pitcher. (Center fielder Jarrod Dyson, 35, has played 10 major league seasons). Holland has taken it upon himself to pass his knowledge to a young staff in an effort to enable their success while trying to rediscover his own. In 2018, he was 7-9 with a 3.57 ERA and 1.29 WHIP in 171⅓ innings over 30 starts. Last season, he was 2-4 with a 5.90 ERA and allowed 17 homers in seven starts for the Giants.

“I think it speaks to him being a true professional,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “When you come in as an NRI guy, you should take that thought process of, ‘I have to make the team until they tell me I made the team.’ … I think it’s shown he’s not only taken a leadership role, but every day when he goes out, he’s pitching to prove something. I think that’s very important.

“Honestly, I think Derek Holland would do that if he were on an NRI or if he were a guy penciled in to be the No. 1 starter on our club. I just think that’s who he is as a person. He’s had a successful major league career.”

Holland is having some difficulty adjusting to what he calls “Corona Camp,” the training camp amid the covid-19 pandemic that has placed a premium on following protocols for player health and safety.

Holland admitted Sunday he is having trouble breaking some of his baseball habits. He hasn’t stopped licking his fingers on the pitching mound, and he shared his disgust with having to carry a wet rag and rosin bag in his back pocket for fear of getting “butt rash.”

“I’m sure I’m going to get yelled at,” Holland said, with a smile. “I can guarantee that.”

As his Dutch Oven nickname attests, Holland is a character who has a way with words. He helped keep the clubhouse loose in spring training with his sense of humor and made workouts fun by warming up with a football and playing quarterback in impromptu pickup games.

And Holland can spin a story, especially when asked about pitching on the Texas Rangers’ perennial playoff teams from 2010-16 that twice reached the World Series. He laughed about giving up an “absolute (missile) off the wall,” and how Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre joked about how it was a great pitch and he should throw it again.

“It just kind of gets you to relax,” Holland said. “Those are the things that I wish more people would understand. Sometimes we overthink too much on that mound. We try to do too much. We’re trying to overthrow. We’re trying to be something we’re not, instead of sticking to what got us here.”

Holland believes the Pirates have the personality of a winning team, even if their 69-93 record last year and the early projections of a 100-loss season this summer suggest otherwise. As an elder statesmen, Holland wants to share his experience with his new teammates, and he sees a team that is taking a winning approach to playing the game.

“I want to try and help these guys out because, no matter what it says on paper or what people say about this team, we have such a strong group of guys with a great — I’m not kidding — mentality of wanting to win every single day when we set foot on this field, whether it’s practice, games or anything. They show it every single time,” Holland said. “And it gets overlooked. That’s one of the things that I’m very excited about, this decision of coming here and being a part of this staff, because you can see it every single day when you set foot on the field with these guys. There’s just something to it that it has a different feel. It’s a very, very good feel.”

Shelton laughed when told of Holland’s choice of words, calling him a “colorful interview” but also accepting the endorsement from a veteran with a sense of gratitude.

“Lord only knows what’s going to come out of his mouth on a daily basis,” Shelton said, with a laugh. “I think you need guys like that. You need guys like that for a couple reasons. No. 1, he’s been around some really good teams. He’s played in the World Series. He’s been around good teammates and cultures they created.

“So for him to say that, and to feel strongly about something we’re trying to create here and we’ve tried to create in a short period of time, it’s important, because when you have veteran guys on your club that buy in like he’s bought in, and to say it’s a good environment, it makes me feel good about what we’ve laid out as the staff.”