Todd Hollandsworth

Did You Know?

• Hollandsworth was drafted in the third round of the 1991 Major League Baseball draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington.
• He is married to Marci Herges, the sister of his former teammate, pitcher Matt Herges.
• After his playing career, he worked as a pre-and-post-game analyst for CSN Chicago's Cubs telecasts and later as a color analyst for Miami Marlins games on Fox Sports Florida.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Hollandsworth made the Dodgers out of spring training in 1995 because the team needed outfielders. He only played in six games as a late-inning defensive sub for left fielder Billy Ashley before fracturing his right wrist. After a rehab assignment in Albuquerque, he came back and started for the first time on July 14 against the Marlins, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs. He also made a key defensive play to help preserve Ramón Martínez’s no-hitter. Four days later, he hit his first big league home run off Houston’s Shane Reynolds, then added a second homer later in the same game. For the year, he hit .233 with five homers and 13 RBIs in 115 plate appearances, keeping his rookie eligibility. He went 0-for-the-series in the 1995 NLDS against the Reds. The next season, he started slowly, bottoming out at .111 after an 0-for-3 game against the Giants on April 16. He then caught fire, going 12-for-25 to lift his average to .288. He led all NL rookies in hits (139), doubles (26), homers (tied with Jermaine Dye at 12), RBIs (59), and stolen bases (21), winning Rookie of the Year. In the 1996 NLDS, swept by the Braves, he went 4-for-12 with three doubles. He slumped in 1997, hitting .232 with two homers and 18 RBIs before being sent to Triple-A in June. He returned later that month and batted .323 through July, then broke a bone near his right elbow. He came back in September but went 4-for-24 the rest of the way, finishing at .247 with four homers and 34 RBIs.

Colorado Rockies

On July 31, the Dodgers traded him and two minor leaguers to the Colorado Rockies for Tom Goodwin. After a first month with the Rockies batting .234 with one home run and five RBIs, he batted .379 in September with ten home runs and eighteen RBIs, finishing with a career-high nineteen combined home runs. The Rockies, 50–54 at the time of the trade, went 32-26 afterward. He re-signed as a free agent after the season. In 2000, expected to play left field and occasionally spell Juan Pierre in center, he suffered a season-ending injury in early May after fouling a ball off his shin, having batted .368 with six home runs and nineteen RBIs in 33 games. Though he batted over .300 in June and July, his power numbers dipped, and at the trade deadline he and Dennys Reyes were traded to the Texas Rangers for Gabe Kapler and Jason Romano. Shortly after joining the Rangers, he strained his left quadriceps and went on the fifteen-day disabled list. In 39 games for Texas, he batted .258 with five home runs and nineteen RBIs, and his 67 combined RBIs between the two clubs were a career high.

Florida Marlins

Hollandsworth signed a one-year deal with the Florida Marlins. He batted .280 with two home runs and six RBIs under manager Jeff Torborg, who was fired 38 games into the season and replaced by Jack McKeon. Under McKeon, his role diminished when twenty-year-old Miguel Cabrera was called up in June, and further when the Marlins acquired Jeff Conine at the August 31 postseason trade deadline. The Marlins went 75–49 under McKeon, captured the NL Wild Card, and defeated the San Francisco Giants in the 2003 National League Division Series. In the 2003 National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs, Hollandsworth made three pinch-hitting appearances, collecting a hit in each at-bat, driving in a run and scoring two.

Chicago Cubs

After the Marlins took the 2003 World Series, Hollandsworth joined the Cubs as a fourth outfielder and lefty pinch hitter. He succeeded in that role, collecting nine hits in seventeen at-bats with two homers, but an injury on June 27 during an at-bat against the White Sox cut his season short; at the time he was hitting .318 with eight home runs and 22 RBIs. Healthy again in 2005, he became the starting left fielder after Moises Alou and Sammy Sosa left. He was batting .254 with five homers and 54 RBIs when the Braves, bound for the playoffs, traded for him on August 29, 2005, sending minor league pitchers Todd Blackford and Angelo Burrows to Chicago.