Washington Nationals’ new pitching coach Jim Hickey and pitching coordinator Brad Holman have a connection...

WASHINGTON – Brad Holman, 52, was the bullpen coach for the Rangers in 2017 when one of the top starting pitchers for Texas was Yu Darvish.

The next year, 2018, Darvish was with the Chicago Cubs under pitching coach Jim Hickey.

Now Holman and Hickey, 59, will be connected even closer with the Nationals.

Hickey was recently named the Davey Martinez’s pitching coach in D.C., taking over for Paul Menhart.

Holman is the pitching coordinator in player development for Washington after working as the Triple-A pitching coach in 2018 and 2019. He hopes to talk soon to Hickey, who was the pitching coach under Joe Maddon at Tampa Bay and Chicago.

“As a matter of fact, I just sent a message to Davey Martinez today to get his phone number and welcome him and introduce myself,” Holman told Federal Baseball on Wednesday.

“I am sure he needed time to acclimate,” Holman said of Chicago native Hickey, who spent the previous two years in player development with the world champion LA Dodgers.

“I didn’t want to be too hasty. I am sure (soon) we will be talking.”

The two instructors have worked with some of the same pitchers besides Davish in the past.

That includes Pedro Strop, who was in the minor league system of the Rangers when Holman was an instructor there in player development.

Strop was also on the Cubs’ staff with Hickey in 2018.

Holman also added that right-hander Steven Fuentes, recently added to the 40-man roster of the Nationals, made his last start in the Panama winter league in his native country on Nov. 4.

“He ended up doing pretty good,” Holman said of Fuentes, who was at Instructional League before heading to Panama.

“He had been going about five innings and up to 80 pitches” about three or four times.

Holman said some of the pitchers from Venezuela who couldn’t get home were invited to Instructional League.

“I have heard all of those kids have gotten home now and everything is on the up and up,” Holman said from his home in Wichita.

Holman pitched for the Mariners in 1993. He is the brother of Brian Holman, a pitcher who broke in to the majors with the Montreal Expos in 1988 and ended his career with Seattle in 1991.

This past summer, Brian Holman invited his brother to share his experiences while on Zoom calls with some pitching prospects in Washington’s system.