By Josh Fathollahi
John Holdzkom’s story is one that baseball fans and baseball players alike can rally behind. The 6-foot-9 righty had struggled through the independent circuit and the minors since 2006. But he made his MLB debut in 2014 as a September call-up for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He performed so well in his short stint with the Pirates (9.0 innings, 2.00 ERA, 14 strikeouts), that the club added him to their Wild Card roster, where he threw an inning against the San Francisco Giants.
A 26-year-old being called up to the majors isn’t something we haven’t seen before; however, Holdzkom’s story is different because it looked like his career in baseball would be over as soon as last season.
Holdzkom was drafted in the 4th round by the New York Mets in 2006 as a hard-throwing righty. Unfortunately, he never made it above High-A because of his inability to control his pitches (94 walks in 126 innings with the Mets’ organization).
The Mets had seen enough, and following an elbow injury, they released Holdzkom. The Cincinnati Reds signed Holdzkom to a minor-league deal in 2012, but released him after appearing in just six games for their High-A affiliate in Bakersfield.
With his major league dreams put on hold, Holdzkom accepted a deal with the Amarillo Sox of the American Association (Independent Baseball) in 2013.
He pitched for Amarillo Sox manager (and 2012, 2013, and 2014 CWL instructor), Bobby Brown, but Holdzkom’s control issues were still prevalent.
Brown had this to say about Holdzkom’s first stint with the Sox, “(Holdzkom) had good stuff, but his control issues are what had him bouncing around from organization to organization.”
After being traded to the Sioux City Explorers towards the end of the 2013 American Association season, Holdzkom was seemingly out of options heading into to 2014.
Brown said that Holdzkom had come to him to see if he would take another chance on him for the 2014 season, “The writing was on the wall for (Holdzkom), and he was running out of options. But he had matured over time, and was a very intellectual guy, so we gave him another shot.”
Brown’s decision ended up paying off, as Holdzkom worked on a new grip with his fastball to add a cutting action to it, and he worked on locating his pitches down in the zone.
He posted a 1.17 ERA with just two walks in 7.2 innings with the Sox in 2014.
His newfound control did not go unnoticed, as an area scout from the Pittsburgh Pirates (and scout who has attended numerous CWL seasons), Mal Fichman noted Holdzkom’s newfound control and the big righty was signed by Pittsburgh and placed at Double-A with their affiliate in Altoona.
Holdzkom continued his success at Double-A and was quickly promoted to Triple-A Indianapolis before being called up to the bigs by the Pirates in September.
He had performed so well at the major league level that the Pirates included him on their Wild Card postseason roster.
Despite the Pirates being bounced from the playoffs in the Wild Card game, Holdzkom showed enough to the organization to be a part of their bullpen in 2015.
