The Rangers have extended Scott Feldman through 2012, according to a team press release. The contract, which guarantees Feldman $13.925MM, includes a club option for 2013 and supersedes the $2.425MM deal the sides agreed to in January for the upcoming season.
Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the details (via Twitter): Feldman makes $2.425MM in 2010, $4.4MM in 2011 and $6.5MM in 2012. The Rangers can pick up a $9.2MM option up for 2013 or buy Feldman out for $600K.
Feldman, 27, was entering his first arbitration season, so the deal buys out all three of his arbitration years and gives the Rangers the option of retaining him for his first free agent season.
Feldman gets $13.325MM for his three arbitration years, which is less than Fausto Carmona ($13.75MM), Ian Snell ($14MM) or Ervin Santana (17.8MM) got for the same chunk of their careers. Those three pitchers recently signed extensions covering their arb years, too.
I have a feeling that this will turn out to be one of the worst contract extensions there is.
Scott Feldman has had only one good season and that one season he finished up terribly. He has control problems with sinker and thats really his only pitch that gets batters out when it’s effective.
How could you say it is going to be a bad extension without knowing the terms? Sometimes I swear you just comment for the sake of commenting.
He can say it’s a bad extension because Feldman just isn’t a very good pitcher. He doesn’t deserve an extension. I think a wiser decision would have been to let him pitch this year to see how well he does, and if he tanks which seems more likely that him blossoming into a great pitcher, then the Rangers could have been able to non-tender him.
This is an unnecessary financial commitment that could blow up in the Ranger’s face.
I’m not saying that you are wrong about what the Rangers should have done, especially given the terms, but let’s say for instance that the terms were $2.425 in ’10, $3M in ’11 and $3.5M in ’12. If the guy pitched to the tune of a 4.08 ERA like he did last year, would that not be good deal?
I see your point, and while I don’t think it was a great move, if it goes bad as I think it will it won’t be a waste of a lot of money. However unnecessary the contract was the numbers aren’t too bad on it.
When I was writing I was thinking regardless of the money, the years are too much and this guy hasn’t done anything to prove he’s going to be effective for years to come. Darren Dreifort might have a better career.
I don’t comment for the sake of commenting. I comment because the comment section is for sharing your Baseball knowledge and insight and discussing topics with fellow MLBTR readers so thank you and your welcome.
The years are the same amount of time that he would be under team control for. The chances of the Rangers non-tendering him during that time are slim. The arbitration process is something that some teams are very wary of and cost-certainty becomes very valuable. In this case, we’ve come to see that they got cost-certainty and it is also costly.
I am all for these comment sections, but some of yours could be easily replaced with a simple “First!”
Considering Feldman’s Cutter was valued as one of the top single pitch in the MLB last year according to fangraphs, it is pretty easy to see that you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about.
That may be so, but this is a pitcher who hasn’t pitched 200 innings in a big league season. He doesn’t strike many guys out, and he put up a 4.08 ERA. He’s just an average pitcher.
Yeah and that cutter really helped him out the last month of the season. You don’t have to say anything I usually know what I’m talking about so theres no need to be rude.
Rich Hill has one of the best curveball’s in Major League Baseball but he has no command with his other pitches. And he had a great spring training right?
you might have a negative i.q.
okay…Well I don’t.
Oh, c’mon. You have to have one good season before you have two. He certainly hasn’t been horrible out of the bullpen. Start posting positive opinions about players other than Span and Mauer, or STHU.
Are you serious? 99.9% of my comments are positive opinions and facts about players all over Major League Baseball. I Love Baseball and I respect every Major League Baseball Player.
Also, this extension doesn’t make him a reliever. He will continue to be a starter.
Yes, Denard Span is my favorite player and you can name any player in Major League Baseball and I can tell you 20 positive things about each player and everything you want to know about him. I can also tell you anything about any Baseball Manager, Broadcaster, GM, or anything else. Thank you.
You call Mike Leake “the next Greg Maddux” without him throwing a pitch in the majors, yet Feldman’s extension is “one of the worst contract extensions there is.” It’s getting hard for me to take you seriously.
So how many times have you seen Mike Leake pitch?
You can look at my other 1834 comments praising players about all different things. Take me seriously or don’t but I can tell you that I have a lot of great Baseball insight and right now you are just looking at my Scott Feldman thoughts.
And in all fairness Triteon, how many contract extensions are there? I said that it could be one of the worst extensions. Doesn’t mean he is one of the worst pitchers. I just don’t think they should have locked him up to such a deal when their whole rotation (after Holland got optioned and Hunter is injured) really has nobody who you can say “he will give me 33 starts and has good stuff”. Rich Harden, okay. But he is gets injured too much. You know what I think about Feldman, Colby Lewis hasn’t had a solid Major League Season ever and hasn’t thrown a pitch in the Majors in over 2 years. Matt Harrison is recovering from an injury. And they take C.J. Wilson, a very good late inning reliever and stick him in the rotation when he has never made a Major League start.
Well this is interesting. If its a really cheap/friendly deal, I guess I can understand. If its a fair salary though, why? He walks a fair amount and K’s almost no one – not normally a longterm success formula. And he hasnt really done much of anything in the majors to this point to begin with. It seems like they are rewarding him solely for the 17 Wins, not a good idea.
My thoughts exactly.
Agreed. Seems strange, almost like they locked him up just so they could get the message out that they had someone worthy of being locked up. There haven’t been many pitchers like that in Texas. Feldman just doesn’t seem like a good candidate to bet on, not a big breakout candidate. I would have taken my chances with him.
As an Angel fan I believe Scott Feldman is going to take a massive step forward this year.
i said just a couple weeks ago extending feldman would be ridiculous. and i think it is strictly from a business perspective. however the salary numbers are plenty team friendly.
detracting from scott by talking about his history is almost moot. he has a new wind up, COMPLETELY different arm slot which makes all his pitches COMPLETELY different. so to say he’ll revert back to pre 09 is silly, he’s just a completely different pitcher. he may not catch as many breaks this year or ever and last year may be the best he can do. but maybe another year of working on the new feldman could even lead to improvement. its certainly a gamble.
He would’ve definitely made more than this in arbitration, where 17 wins will go a long way. The only way the Rangers lose this deal is if Feldman gets so bad that they would have been better off non-tendering him. That is unlikely. He pitches to contact but has a very good cutter.
“…and this guy we just call Feldman…”
The Rangers wouldn’t just extend him because of his 17 wins. They have legitimate belief in his ability and Mike Maddux’s ability to make him better. He’s still a work in progress, but in one year alone Mike Maddux turned him into a completely different pitcher. He has a variety of fastballs, all with movement. That’s the name of his game, hitting the bad part of the bat.
He’s not an ace, but if he were on the Cardinals, every fan of baseball would be praising him as another genius work of Dave Duncan.
The terms of the contract are pretty friendly for the Rangers. They backloaded the deal obviously and the big money year is an option year so it is not horrible. He has a great cutter and induces a lot of ground balls. As long as his defense behind him does well, he will be alright. He could also improve… even if he does regress, it is a pretty friendly contract that wouldn’t hinder spending in future seasons.