Cleveland Guardians Recall Colin Holderman Following Injury to Shawn Armstrong

The Cleveland Guardians' bullpen has struggled over the past couple of weeks, and will now have to introduce another relatively questionable arm to its mix following an injury.

Feb 24, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Cleveland Guardians pitcher Colin Holderman against the Los Angeles Dodgers during a spring training game at Camelback Ranch-Glendale. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Guardians were dealt a dose of bad news this morning.

On Sunday, April 26, the Guardians announced that veteran reliever Shawn Armstrong would be placed on the 15-day injured list following a right groin strain. In his place, the front office is recalling Colin Holderman, who the team signed this past offseason to a one-year, $1.5 million deal.

Before heading to the IL, Armstrong had been having an up-and-down start to the year. Across 12 starts and 10.2 innings pitched, he had posted a 4.22 ERA with a 1.41 WHIP and .205 batting average against.

Unfortunately, bringing up Holderman isn't expected to be an upgrade, at least with what the 30-year-old put on display before his initial optioning to Triple-A.

Per @tim_stebbins, the #Guardians are losing reliever Shawn Armstrong to a right groin strain. He will be headed to the injured list.

In his place, Colin Holderman is being recalled from Columbus.#GuardsBall

— Cade Cracas (@CracasCade) April 26, 2026

Holderman began the 2026 MLB regular season with the Guardians up at the major league level, making the Opening Day roster.

He pitched in the first series against the Seattle Mariners, going through three total innings and giving up two hits, three runs, two earned runs and two walks, striking out three in the process.

The most eye-popping part of his game, though, was that he had thrown 62 pitches across those three innings, and as a reliever, that is an obvious sign that something isn't working correctly. In his first appearance of the year, his one inning back on March 27, he threw 27 pitches, 14 of which were strikes.

Such a high pitch count puts the rest of the bullpen in a difficult situation, because he will then need a longer time off in between appearances.

While he could transfer his abilities into an inning-eater role, the Guardians already have a few arms that can do that.

Sitting in a high percentile with fastball velocity, which has averaged out to 96.5 mph to begin the year, he can send batters packing when his command is on. When it isn't, though, that's where his pitch count grows and his confidence shrinks.

Fortunately, it seems like many of those early-season bumps he saw in the big leagues were able to be addressed while he was down in Triple-A competing with the Columbus Clippers.

Over the last four outings, where he has covered eight innings on the mound, Holderman has given up zero earned runs.

With rocky starting pitching as of late, Cleveland is in desperate need of a reliever who can keep opposing teams from scoring in late-game situations.

The Guardians are likely not going to put Holderman in any high-leverage situations, but if he enters the game in the sixth or seventh innings, his goal is to just get out there and hold the opposition at bay long enough to turn the game over to arms like Hunter Gaddis, Erik Sabrowski and Cade Smith.

Cleveland will have to play his situation correctly, as he has one minor league option remaining.