The Dodgers have released infielder Jose Miguel Fernandez, as per the official transactions page for the Double-A Texas League (tip of the cap to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy).
It was just last January that Fernandez signed a minor league deal with a $200K signing bonus, ending a rather prolonged stretch in free agency following the second baseman’s escape from Cuba in December 2015. While Fernandez posted some very good batting numbers in Cuba’s Serie Nacional (.319/.403/.423 in 2580 career plate appearances), he also hadn’t played since 2014, which unsurprisingly led to some rust during showcase appearances for scouts.
Still, there was some thought that L.A. had scored a bargain when they inked Fernandez, as he was seen by some as a player who was ready for a relatively quick promotion to the big leagues. Indeed, his performance in 2017 seemingly did little to shake that assessment, as Fernandez hit .306/.366/.498 over 369 PA for Double-A Tulsa. Fernandez continued to display good contact skills with just 33 strikeouts (against 24 walks), and he hit 16 homers at the Double-A level — a nice power increase considering he only hit 37 homers total in all his time in the Serie Nacional.
Fernandez didn’t play after July 29 due to a DL stint, and unless that injury was something particularly serious, his release seems rather surprising. Even if the Dodgers faced a roster crunch or simply didn’t see Fernandez as a long-term piece, one would think a trade would’ve come before an outright release (though the Dodgers might’ve quietly shopped him and found no takers). Still, given the relatively low price Fernandez cost Los Angeles in the first place, the Dodgers might’ve felt they weren’t losing out on much by releasing him.
The 29-year-old Fernandez now figures to get some attention on the free agent market, particularly from teams in need of middle infield help. Fernandez has spent much of his career at second base, though he also has a handful of games at first base, third base and in left field.
If the smartest team in baseball released him rather than trade or keep him, he’s gotta have something going on behind the scenes.
“Smartest team” hasnt won playoffs in over 30 years
Did you think when you made that statement? Andrew Freidman and Zaidi have not been running the team since 1989
So those two are the smartest guys in baseball? What do you base that in?
No, but they inherited a multi-playoff team!!!
Hasn’t won playoffs? That’s a weird way to put it.
You do know the World Series is not a part of the playoffs right? In fact the term playoffs refers to playing off to go to the championship. If you win the pennant, you won the playoffs…. Simple as that.
Are you really that dumb? You PLAYOFF to win a championship! It could not be more obvious that the WS is part of the playoffs! Simple as that lmfao
The term you are looking for is “Postseason” that is factually correct. Playoffs apart of the postseason but no the same thing.
Wow, you are painfully ignorant smfh
Good move deleting your other vulgar comment lol
I’m sure they will still find it when i report you.
Obviously you have never played sports. Perhaps that is how it works for you in the chess club!
Remember, it is better to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
just look up the word playoffs, so you can cut your losses, and stop looking a bigger fool each time!
Maybe ask a younger sibling, because even little children know what playoffs are lotflmfao!
Your life is sad
Five Division Titles in five years.
Lmao great accomplishment. 5 years of choking. No one cares about second place. But keep priding yourself over making the playoffs five years in a row and no championships to show for it.
Everything is choking now to the trolls. Only choke job was 2014 and mabey this past WS. Stay salty hater you team cant consistency put a good product on the field. Baseball is nothing but a crapshoot in october so the only way to prep is to make it
Uh, you contradicted yourself twice in your first three sentences. That is a fairly impressive feat with only 12 words, well 10 words, 1 number, and 1 acronym.
He obviously had 0 trade value
Lmao smartest team? Go to sleep you’ve had too much to drink.
Or, they didn’t see him as a long term option given the emergence of taylor bellinger turner toles verdugo. Why let a 29 year old block a 22 or 23 year old developing thatll be ready when taylor and turners timeis up.
Doubt teams were lining up to trade for him being 29. If trades were offered itd probably be something the dodgers would have to protect on the 40 man and they preferred what theyre protecting already.
would not have to add JMF to the 40 man roster for another 3 seasons. Something else involved here than “blocking” someone else. He was not going to be a regular, a utility player who could hit a little. Or, just organization depth at AAA.
Fernandez is a second base option and pretty much all of those guys can play other positions. I’m going to assume the worst and say we probably won’t hear the end of Fernandez in the baseball world.
He can’t really play 2b defensively. He’s a contact hitter with little pop who doesn’t have a position. He’ll definitely get a chance somewhere else. I’m just guessing he doesn’t have much trade value and there’s no long term future with the Dodgers. He can hit though.
This simply isn’t true if he was popping 16 homers/.190ISO in half a season in AA/AAA. The ball is also juiced in the majors so the chances of him carrying over power from the minors seems kinda realistic.
I mean with all due respect not sure it even translates. Home/Road splits are significant. He popped 13 at home and that RF porch is extremely short, 307. If you watched he popped so many on what you can coin AA mistakes and many of them weren’t what you’d consider no doubters. If we’re discussing carrying it over I’m not sure a .600 slug at a hitter friendly environment especially for LHH means a guy is suddenly a power hitter. It’s not as though he slugged above .400 on the road.
Translation doesn’t necessarily compute even with a juiced ball. He’s a professional hitter no doubt. You could easily lean to he’s a 29 yo professional hitter, who is 5 years older than average competition, who thrived on a small ball park and younger competition.
That sounds like something my grandma would say
The smartest team in baseball would be the cubs and the Astros
The teams with the largest wallet would be doyuers Yankees and bosox
Astros completely failed on 2 of 3 #1 picks. Cubs paid no attention to pitching which is really going to hurt their window. It already got them knocked out this season. Theo also handed out one of the worst contracts in history to Heyward
2 of 3? One didn’t sign bc he needed tj and thought he was worth more ao they got Bergman that’s a win.
Maybe I’m biased as a fan of them, but the Indians genuinely deserve consideration for being one of the smartest teams…Swisher and Bourn were misses in free agency but they didn’t break the bank and they’ve built a perennial contender through pretty moderate means
I knew I was missing one
Yes Indians
Much appreciated
Which honestly makes the dodgers one of the dumber teams. So much payroll and can’t make anything happen. Also, who cares the astros failed picks, they had
And have a pretty good farm system still even with fumbling a pick. Indians definitely one of the smarter teams. And I’m not even a fan
If dumb is making the playoffs 5 years running and having a pretty good farm system, I’ll take dumb any day.
75% of the farm system was already in place before Doubleday & what’s his face came over, they are $ dumb!!
The cubs aren’t one of the smarter teams. They just happened to be one of the worst teams for the better part of a decade and got the opportunity to draft “no doubt” studs. Like someone else said, they have made some bad choices and will have to choose which players they keep (and pay handsomely) and which ones to let go/trade and there goes the plethora of “talent” they have. LAD is on the same collision course. No matter how much money you have, you still must live within your means and they are a few short years away from shelling out big contracts to some guys (bellinger, Taylor, buehler, verdugo, Barnes, Seager, Jansen (again?) and urias and the list goes on) or letting some move on (see the 2015 KC Royals).
Their window (along with the nationals, cubs, and in some small part the cardinals) are quickly approaching and teams like the Indians, Astros and the Yankees (who have done it the right way and have the means to do more) will rule the AL and could easily be penciled into the WS every year for the next 5-7 years with a sustained amount of health.
Sorry your comment makes no sense. You kind of just threw names to the wall for the Dodgers that you predict will require major contracts? And then you contend the Indians and Astros have the ability to keep it together. When I’d in fact argue the Astros will have the hardest time keeping it together. The Dodgers just cleared 45M and are on the way to clearing 60M this next off-season. That’s before churning other short term money. I’d contend the two major extension they’d have to worry about would be Seager and Bellinger. The other talent acquired like Taylor and Barnes was as a result of churning. They are good players, supporting cast players, but not really major extension type of guys. Add onto that the extremely deep farm. Then you mention Buehler and Verdugo who by prospect ratings are sure talented, but they haven’t even established themselves and are sort of a bit away. I’d say what the Dodgers have done in the draft and development has been extremely impressive considering where they’ve picked and rounds acquired. The dodgers traded long term for short term strapped deals. I’m glad they are finally going about it the right way. But hey don’t let you bias show. It’s just really unrealistic the way you painted it.
No, he just has to be a 29 y/o who has never played above AA. Who’s going to trade anything worth having for that? Doesn’t mean he can’t latch on somewhere. Just not trade-worthy. No point wasting time & effort to get a 40th rounder from some A ball bullpen when you’ve only sunk $200K into him & your fans don’t care.
This just seems odd to me. There’s gotta be more to this. Maybe he’s hurt or maybe he asked for his release? Just seems odd to release someone who was doing that good in the minors.
Puzzling, our depth at second base isn’t very deep (W. Calhoun traded and now JMF), Forsythe is going to be a free agent after this upcoming season. Which second basemen will be free agents after this coming season? Daniel Murphy, Brian Dozier… who else?
Look for Chris Taylor or perhaps Austin Barnes at second base in 2019. If Farmer and Will Smith can handle C in 2019 moving Barnes to second base would allow Dodgers to get more at bats for him while also using him as an emergency catcher. More than enough OF’ers so Taylor back to the infield makes sense.
Dodgers also have another blue chip option for behind the dish in Keibert Ruiz.Either he or Smith along with Farmer(who will also probably move from behind the plate) can catch with Barnes moving to second.Dodgers have plenty of options there.
.
I think they’ll be comfortable with Chris Taylor at 2B with Kike and Culberson as back ups. I’d love to see them swing a trade for Whit Merrifield to address our lack of depth after 2018. Maybe sign Schoop? Exciting stuff
It’s not really that puzzling. The two players, you mentioned, who can’t pick it or play it at the position were shipped out. You have to figure they have some faith in Culbertson, Locastro, Mejia, Jackson,and Estevez. Not to mention the 2b market is pretty flush. Add in the flexibility of Taylor, though who I think they like his hands better in the OF on an everyday basis, and the soon to be upper level logjam in the outfield along with other some other spare part they have talent to obtain a young mif. It’s just a guy who had probably little to no trade value and no defensive home.
Still, if he had any trade value, he’d have been traded instead of released. He didn’t look like a total loss. Something else we don’t know about is at work here.
I guess. He’s 29 without a position. He was a contact hitter who dominated AA. Which is sort of expected as a 29 year old. He was signed for 200K. Doesn’t really sound like there was a whole lot of belief in him originally. Beyond the injury I’m
Not sure he was a hot commodity regardless.
Not a hot commodity, but surely not a worthless one, either.
He was playing w/kids, and since when is 200k not a real investment!
Sure, but my rebuttal would be dive a little deeper into the numbers. Driller park is a pretty short porch especially for LH hitter and it’s a hitters park. His splits are gaudy esp his power splits. If you also watch his hrs a majority of them are mistakes, hanging mid mid cement mixers/elevated fb missing spots. Mistakes that you expect AA’s to make. 13 are in Tulsa. I’d honestly offer to say he’s a 29 yo professional hitter, who’s 5 years older than average competition, who thrived power wise with a 307RF porch. So the reservations are probably there. Then you add he has no defensive home. I’m not sure many teams were high on him. I’m also not sure his Tulsa power surge changed many minds.
I suppose I am just going to have to agree more with the analysis in the article. He’d been out of baseball for a couple of years so A-ball is where he should have been playing for awhile, age not being a significant factor in this case. If he’d flopped totally in the minors I can see him being released. But he did not flop, and so the downside of keeping him on a minor league contract would appear on the face of it to be nil. Something else is at work here, we just don’t know what it is yet.
That’s the issue right, you don’t want him playing in A ball because he’s blocking someone. He also had played somewhat so the time lapse isn’t so much a major factor in comparison to a guy who hadn’t played at all in two years. Something else might be at play. I wouldn’t be naive to that aspect. I just don’t think he had much of future and there’s not necessarily a place for him to play. I do think the FO will be looking for a younger inf.
I just think there’s going to be a somewhat interesting back log at AAA next year with an interesting piece here and there and injury depth. The same can be said at AA. So to me it’s one of those deals where he’s so far down on the depth chart and provides so little versatility that there’s not a major emphasis to find him a spot in which he could potentially block somebody. We can agree to disagree as we have time to time.
So what do you see as the disadvantage of keeping someone like this playing at middle-A? Seems to me backlogs are material for trades.
In either case, we presumably will find out more about his story if and when another team picks him up.
The issue I see is taking ABs away from guys that are supposed to be developing especially if there’s no future with the organization. I also have a hard time believing a 30 year old making 8K a year toiling in A ball, in California which is sort of unlivable, is going to be very happy or receptive to it. It’s not like he was a milb FA signed to a new team new salary to suck it up.
Realistically a contact guy with no def position is the type of guy that’s not all to valuable, especially if there are younger more flexible talent ahead on the depth chart. He was listed as a 1b following the end of the year, so maybe there was thought thats were he may land. But is his skill set that valuable as a 1b? Not really he lacks the overall the pop. To me you can trade backlog talent sure, but we then go back to in this new age of baseball if you can’t play a position competently your value to an NL bench is limited.
Downvoted for asking a question… wonder who that was
People care about those votes?
Willie Calhoun’s bat was never in question,it was his glove.Going to the American League was the best option for him,because he wouldn’t have made at second in the NL.
The one weakness in the Dodgers organization is 2B depth so this is a little strange. I can see Utley getting 1 last run with the team
It was pretty odd how he suddenly turned the power on out of nowhere the second he hit US soil. His K rates were legendary, he was an interesting player. Hearing the phrase “disappeared” thrown around with him, referring to how he didn’t play after July. Doesn’t sound promising.
Maybe this was a character issue
Kind of odd.
seems like good depth for the Mets but who am I too say
Same thought occurred to me….
Where’s the braves guy at
Braves may have some room on one or more of their minor-league rosters for such an international signing just about now.
I think they’re barred from signing anyone with even a foreign-sounding name until 2030!
You know there is something seriously wrong with the guy when even Baltimore won’t pony up some of their “treasured” international pool money for the guy. It must have seriously hurt the Dodgers’ feelings when they couldn’t even get 50k out of Baltimore for the guy
Haha true, but now I hope Orioles sign him and see what he does in AAA.
Go get em, AA!
Given the timing of his release…right before MLB dropped the hammer on the Braves,makes me wonder if there were any irregularities in his signing,because his numbers at Tulsa don’t translate to a player who suddenly gets released.
He’d fit right in as a depth guy with the White Sox. Can be a utility guy that can play a lot of different positions.
He may be a psycho like Alex Guerrero was.
Toronto may pounce on him. Their middle infield is injury prone. It would be a good roll of the dice.
Ah, you beat me to it.
Blue Jays? Worth a look for depth at 2B at least?