March 31: Contreras has officially been released by the club, according to the team's transactions page.
March 17: The Rangers have informed right-hander Jose Contreras that he will not make the club and offered him reassignment to their minor league camp, according to a team release. However, the press release also says that Contreras is weighing his options, including retiring as an active player.
Contreras, who turned 42 this offseason, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers after tossing just five big league innings in 2013. The Cuban veteran was solid in 29 minor league innings last year though, posting a 2.79 ERA with the Triple-A affiliates for the Pirates and Red Sox. He's struggled in Spring Training to this point, yielding seven runs on 13 hits in six innings of work.
In 1173 Major League innings, Contreras has a 4.57 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 with a record of 78 wins and 67 losses. He had a strong season as a member of the Phillies' bullpen in 2010 but hasn't pitched more than 14 innings in a season since that time. He's earned $67.5MM over the course of his Major League career, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
Jose Contreras should go to the redsox 😉
He is another of hundreds of AL-pitchers that was done and looking at retirement then was “sent down” to the NL was okey again for a couple of years. NL is the safety-net for pitchers.
The change in his stats had a lot more with converting from a starter to a reliever than it did with being in the NL v AL. AL 173 GS over 7 years, NL 2 GS over 5 years.
Hundreds of AL pitchers? Hundreds? Is there even a legitimate sample of 100 pitchers in the interleague era with sufficient time in both leagues to perform a study on, much less reach a conclusion on? There are plenty of examples of pitchers dominating both, and even some examples of being better in the AL than NL or struggling in the NL. Struggling in both even happens when, yknow, the pitcher isn’t good. Sometimes the lack of a DH does help revive a career or at least give them confidence, but the overall difference in AL vs. NL hitting and league ERAs really isn’t much. In fact, since the Yankees’ dynasty ended, WS play has been even-ish (13 seasons, 7 WS wins for NL, 6 for AL) despite Boston winning 3 in that span. A.J. Burnett’s revival is also somewhat superficial since overall offensive levels have been steadily decreasing.
Chien-Ming Wang, Johan Santana, Matt Garza, Josh Beckett (to an extent), Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, Pedro Martinez, and Derek Lowe highlight my impromptu list of pitchers superior in the AL than NL. That’s a list with 5 AL Cy Youngs on it and a single NL Cy Young, a guy who just scored a 4/50 deal despite struggling with health and effectiveness in the NL, a man who was dominant out of the ‘pen and as a starter before becoming simply an NL workhorse, a guy who flamed out in the NL, someone who began with a dominant postseason before becoming mediocre, then throwing together some amazing seasons in Boston, and, of course, the quintessential AL-to-NL example: Zito.
In the case of Contreras, the sample size is way too small to draw such a conclusion. He had one ok year out of the pen in the NL. That was 4 years ago.
Of course not facing DH’s has some impact on pitchers and AL teams have always had edge on NL in games with DH because NL teams are not built to carry an extra over the hill hitter that can’t play any defense.
Tens of millions of dollars for a 4+ career ERA. Dang.
I’ll be honest, I thought Contreras died of old age like 5 years ago. He still pitches?
42 is his Cuban age. He has to really be at least 74.
Contreras could possibly get the pitcher’s job at the All Star Softball game since Rollie Fingers retired.
he is pitching in the triple-A mexican league