The sad case of Kyle Holder, the Yankee shortstop who always came up short

Depending on which voices rule my head, yesterday's Rule 5 draft was either a full-blown Yankee disaster...  or a tall, steaming mound of nothingness.  

In case you missed it, the Cashman Consortium lost three prospects - RH pitchers Garret Whitlock and Trevor Stephan, and SS Kyle Holder, a former sandwich-round pick.  (Whitlock, it should be noted, was snagged by Boston... grrr...)

But but BUT... under the mysterious Rule 5 - a casserole of legalese that rivals the liability disclaimers on your phone - each selected player must stay on his new team's 25-man roster all season, or he comes home, wagging his tail behind him. Most Rule Fivers don't stick. Remember Ivan Nova? He came back. Remember Nestor (Ocasio) Cortez? He came back. We don't say "Goodbye," merely "Steal some silverware on the way back." (Also, it's a mark of honor for the Yankee system, in that other teams are raiding us.) 

But today, I mourn the loss of Holder - this winter's second Holder (after Jonathan, now a free agent) to be unheld.

We picked Holder in the the 2015 draft, when he was reputed to be then nation's premier defensive SS. 

"Holder is about as elite a defender as we've seen come through the college ranks," Yankee scouting director, Damon Oppenheimer said. "He's got a tremendous glove...

"The ball just sticks in his glove. There's not a lot of guys that you say, 'I want to get there early just to watch this guy take ground balls.' But that's what I did with him."

Oppenheimer compared Holder's defense to 11-time Gold Glove winner Omar Vizquel. 

"This guy can do some of the things that Omar did between his legs and things. I don't know. It was really, really fun to watch."

One aspect of bullshit: When it is particularly savory, folks have a way of remembering the taste. For five years, Yank fans have waited for our Omar. Now, he's gone.

Elephant-in-the-room time: Holder's bat was always a dice roll. Over five years, he hit .264 with 17 HR and 26 SB. Not much... unless his glove was the Second Coming of Omar. 

In his last full season, 2019, at Trenton, Holder hit .265 with 9 HRs. Not bad, really. Especially if he is the Second Coming of Omar. 

(I should note that last year, the Yankees left Holder unprotected in the Rule 5, and nobody picked him. So he spends a year slogging around Scranton, and now he gets taken? Go figure.) 

I've monitored Holder for five years. He suffers from Aaron Hicks Disease: Whenever his bat heated up, he'd get hurt. (He missed most of 2018.)

But if this guy is truly an elite defensive SS, why did the Yankees sit on him? At various moments, we've tried Tyler Wade, Ronald Torreyes, Adeiny Hechavarria, Troy Tulowitzki, Thairo Estrada and - last season - the inexplicable Jordy "the wrong Murcer" Mercer. Why not the Second Coming of Omar? 

I get it that savvied scouts - baseball men! Marlboro men!- along with nerdy, nose-picking wonks have studied Holder and said no. Just so it's said: I do not think I know more than the experts.

But last year, the Yankees tried Gleyber Torres at SS, and - well - I'm not sure it worked. Yesterday, Brian Cashman suggested that Gleyber didn't show up in good enough shape - (he blamed the pandemic) - which is a hell of thing for a GM to say about a player. Cashman also suggested the Yanks might not re-sign DJ LeMahieu. If so, Gleyber probably returns to 2B, leaving a big, gaping hole at SS. 

A perfect opening for the Second Coming of Omar, am I right? 

Well, the Yanks often seem to be glove-blind. The greatest example: Gary Sanchez. For five years, they've ignored his defense in favor of his exit velocity. And now they are said to be considering Kyle Schwarber? Yikes! 

So, Kyle Holder, now 26, is a Philadelphia Phillie. Who cares what he hits? What if he turns out to be a Gold Glove? Think the Yanks will call Jordy Mercer?