KC Royals Greg Holland Rated Top Closer in Baseball

By David Hill |

The list of the truly elite closers in baseball is rather short. There, we find the likes of Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman and Greg Holland. That’s it. While there may be closers who put up elite statistics over the course of a year or two, they have not separated themselves like this triumvirate of firemen have managed to.

The debate among baseball fans and fantasy baseball nerds like myself rages on as to who the best closer of the three happens to be. Well, if the rankings that David Schoenfield of ESPN.com put together are to be believed, then the base closer in baseball is none other than the KC Royals Greg Holland.

Holland has certainly been dynamic for the Kansas City Royals since taking on the closer role. Over the past three years, Holland has posted a 1.88 ERA and a 1.054 WHiP, saving 109 games. Over the past two full seasons, Holland has saved 93 of the 98 chances he has had, for a truly dominant 94.9% rate.

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Coming off back to back seasons where he earned an All-Star nod and earned votes for both the MVP and Cy Young Awards, Greg Holland is certainly a deserving candidate.

While we Kansas City Royals fans know of his dominance, he shined under the postseason spotlight, allowing only one run in his eleven innings of work. Holland also picked up seven saves, helping to show that the national audience that the Kansas City Royals bullpen Cerberus was, in fact, a force to be reckoned with.

At 29 years old, Holland does not show any sign of slowing down. Over the past two seasons, he has given up a nearly identical batting line each year, as the opposition hit at a .170/.228/.251 rate in 2013 and had a .170/.238/.234 batting line in 2014. While closers can be fungible entities, there is no reason to expect that Holland will be any different than normal.

Greg Holland, along with Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera and the rest of the stellar Kansas City Royals bullpen, is a weapon that few teams in baseball can match. According to ESPN.com, while Holland may be part of that upper trio, he is certainly without peer.

Next: Kansas City Royals Top Five Starting Pitchers

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