Derek Holland embarks on critical season with Rangers

No pitcher on the Texas Rangers staff, including the relievers who folded Tuesday and Wednesday against Seattle, gets as much gruff about his pitching, his preparedness and his life away from the field than Derek Holland.

And there isn’t even a close second.

“It’s non-stop,” Holland said.

The left-hander, though, knows that the public’s outcry comes with the territory of being a major league pitcher who just happens to have an outgoing personality that he isn’t afraid to share with the world.

Each Instagram photo, tweet, commercial and TV guest spot leaves many to believe, including some within the Rangers organization, that Holland is distracted and needs to cut out the antics.

This isn’t a new storyline, nor is it new when a teammate defends Holland’s work ethic and readiness. Those instances just go ignored by the anti-Derek crowd, which was probably holding its breath Thursday as Holland was scheduled to make his 2016 debut at Angel Stadium.

Holland rightfully could have held his breath, too, after two injury-wrecked seasons and with him having entered the last guaranteed year on his Rangers contract. This is a big season for Holland, but he won’t look back and isn’t looking forward, either.

Instead, he is staying in the now and trying to be as healthy and prepared as he can be.

“It’s game on. It’s the real deal,” Holland said Tuesday. “I say this is a big year every year. We need that motivation. We need to push ourselves. But for me, I’ve been gone two years. I’m not happy with the way that went, and I know what I’m capable of.

“Now, I’ve got to do it. I’ve got to show it. It’s put up or shut up. I’ve had enough of the negativity. I’ve got to be positive and go out there and be me.”

Holland has shown in glimpses during his past two abbreviated seasons what he can be. Then again, he’s always flashed his potential in glimpses while unable to harness the consistency.

After returning from knee surgery in 2014, he went 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA over 37 September innings and fueled talk that he and Yu Darvish would be a formidable 1-2 punch in 2015. When Darvish was injured, Holland was to be the Opening Day starter until falling behind in spring training and having to settle for the home opener in Game 5.

Holland lasted one inning, this time giving way to a shoulder injury. But he returned to win three of four starts, including a three-hit shutout of Baltimore on Aug. 30, and allowed only one run on three hits over eight innings Sept. 5 against the Angels.

That night he met Charlie Sheen after embracing Sheen’s character in Major League, right down to the zig-zaggy Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn haircut.

Holland’s ERA jumped from 2.37 to 4.91 over the final five starts of the season, during which he was encouraged by Rangers brass to dump the Wild Thing do, and his start in the American League Division Series was a disaster — two innings, six runs, three homers — with the Rangers needing only one win to advance.

He took it hard and partied away his sorrows in Dubai. Just before spring training, his conditioning was called into question with stories that he looked heavy. All the while, though, he had been working out like he always had — hard and no shortcuts or goofing off.

“The last two years I’ve worked out with him,” right fielder Shin-Soo Choo said. “He worked hard the whole off-season. He wanted to get better and stronger.

“There are a lot of different people in this world. Derek’s personality, he likes talking to people and is an outgoing person. But when he starts working out. He’s different. He doesn’t smile. He’s focused. He’s a different person.”

That work has Holland confident he can stay healthy this season. He sought the advice of fellow lefty Cole Hamels, another workout freak who has remained healthy for almost all of the first 10 seasons of his career.

The Rangers’ training staff remains a big part of Holland’s regimen, “making sure I’m not doing what I shouldn’t be doing,” Holland said. “It was a good off-season overall. I’m very happy with it.”

The Rangers are paying him $10 million this season in the last year of an extension he signed the spring of 2012 after a 16-5 campaign in 2011 that included four shutouts and Game 4 brilliance (8  1/3 shutout innings) in the World Series.

Holland has more career shutouts than Hamels, eight to seven.

The Rangers hold club options for 2017 at $11 million, with a $1.5 million buyout, and 2018 at $11.5 million, with a $1 million buyout. Considering how much the cost for starting pitching has soared in recent off-seasons, those would become club-friendly if Holland stays healthy and pitches to his capabilities in 2016.

He believes he has prepared himself to do that, no matter what negativity is out there and what his contract status is.

“I just don’t let that affect me,” Holland said. “I’ve got to focus on this year. My focus is being out there with my teammates. You never know what could happen. I’m focused on the now.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Derek Holland embarks on critical season with Rangers."