In what has been a slow offseason for all 30 big league clubs, right-hander Doug Fister has broken the ice and signed a one-year deal with the Rangers, the team announced today. Fister, a client of PSI Sports Management, will reportedly be guaranteed $4MM in the form of a $3.5MM base salary for 2018 and either a $4.5MM club option or a $500K buyout for 2019. The option could reportedly be worth as much as $7MM, and both years include $500K in performance bonuses. The Rangers’ 40-man roster is now up to 39 players.
The Rangers will be the seventh big league organization for the soon-to-be 34-year-old Fister, who went through all of last offseason without landing a contract after struggling with the Astros in 2016. The Angels finally signed Fister to a minor league accord in May, but he opted out of it June 21 after failing to reach the majors with the club.
[Related: Updated Texas Rangers depth chart & payroll outlook]
After his Halos stint concluded, Fister quickly caught on via waivers with the Red Sox and ended up turning in 90 1/3 innings (18 appearances, 15 starts) of 4.88 ERA pitching, with 8.27 K/9 against 3.79 BB/9 and a 50.6 percent groundball rate. Fister experienced a notable uptick in velocity during his Red Sox tenure, though he still only topped out in the low-90s, and notched one of the best swinging-strike rates of his career (7.6 percent – up from a league-worst 5.7 percent from 2015-16).
While the 6-foot-8 Fister is no longer the front-line starter he was at times with the Mariners, Tigers and Nationals earlier in his career, the Rangers are banking on his respectable showing in Boston carrying into 2018. With Andrew Cashner and Miguel Gonzalez sitting on the open market, the Rangers entered the offseason in need of multiple starters. Texas’ rotation finished last season 24th in both ERA and fWAR, and that was with 137 quality innings from Yu Darvish, whom the team traded to the Dodgers at the July 31 non-waiver deadline.
For now, the Rangers’ projected starting staff for 2018 includes Fister, Cole Hamels, Martin Perez, A.J. Griffin and Nick Martinez. While Fister, Hamels and Perez are either strong bets or locks to earn spots, the Rangers would hard pressed to count on either Griffin or Martinez, who combined for 178 2/3 innings of replacement-level pitching in 2017. Adding Fister won’t be the Rangers’ last move this offseason as they attempt to repair their rotation, then, but it’s the majors’ first notable free agent signing in what has been an unusually quiet winter so far.
Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston first reported the agreement. SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo reported the terms of the contract.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Finally. Something.
Same
Thank god!!! We finally have a major league deal! Let the floodgates open!!!
With a minor league player, nice going!
Nice pickup, bet he got multiple years if signing this early.
More like he got a major league deal, hence he signed. I highly doubt anyone would give Fister a multi-year deal. At best, a team option on the second year.
If a one-year deal then at least it is a robust one. You make it sound like he signed for a couple of million; he could have just gotten that later in the offseason easily so no reason to take such a deal now. This guy started a playoff game a couple of months ago (ahead of the reigning Cy Young winner, no less.)
nah it’s probably like $6.5 mil
lol well i guess only 4. Not really “robust”.
Define robust. Please don’t say 1 year, 10 million deal. Who was that reigning Cy Young winner again? Oh yeah, the very average Rick Porcello who had 1 fluke year. Please. The Sox picked him(Fister) up off the scrap heap. Fister was excited that someone gave him a major league contract, so it wasn’t a tough decision for him.
Fair enough, I was way off here.
turns out it’s a coupla million
It’s a one year deal for $3.5M, with a club option for 2019 at $4.5M, or a $500k buyout.
He is this year version of Cashner for the Rangers. If the Rangers season is horrid (which is very likely could be), he could be a good piece to flip at the break considering how inexpensive he is and that he could be controlled for 2019.
For this type of money it is a low-risk signing for the Rangers. Helps fill in a much needed #4 or #5 spot for the rotation.
The problem is with Texas, he could be the #2 or 3 starter. Perez, Martinez, Griffin are all very mediocre at best,. But he’s cheap and maybe he can eat innings. Winning teams get lucky now and then with signings like these. But he’s had three poor seasons in a row so there’s no reason to believe he’ll suddenly return to his late 20’s form.in his mid 30’s,.
Something is finally happening. Doug Fister is not the domino to the off-season that we wanted, but the one that we needed.
Who ?
Doug Fister
Ask the Yanks about Doug Fister, they will tell you!
Yankees are irrelevant to me so I’ll pass. What has ol dougie boy done though ?
Multiple good-great years?
Doug Fister has had a quietly good career. And I really like watching him pitch. Congrats to a very decent player.
You like watching a guy who had 4.1 fWAR over the last 4 seasons, or 1 WAR players? Weird. I like watching players who are good but, you do you.
I like watching him too. He has good work ethic and is a good team player, even if he doesn’t light the world on fire.
1 down 2 to go
About time we see something. This has been a boring off season. I hope we see more this week. Anyone know the dates of the winter meetings? I know we will see a lot more action during the meetings and shortly after.
December 10-14
Thank you
Fister was one of the last free agents to sign last offseason, and this season he is one of the first.
And so it begins
That came outta left field. Didn’t even know he was a free agent
Last player signed last year. Now the first
Looks like he didn’t want to play the waiting game this year. With the way this offseason is going there might be some good names left in February and March. If teams are willing to give a chance to their prospects, this could happen and more teams could be like the O’s before the 2014 season.
Fister? I hardly know’er.
Badoom crash!
Fister signed!!! Now desperate teams are hurriedly reaching out to Bartolo Colon. Bidding war engaged.
Velocity on all of his pitches was up 3 mph from 2016. He looked like prime Doug Fister last year. Pending the contract, this seems like a nice pickup for Texas.
“Prime Doug Fister” nearly had an ERA of 5.
The Red Sox changed his mechanics when they picked him up mid-summer. He went 5-2 with them and had an ERA of 2.79.
He was 5-9 with an ERA of 4.88 with the Red Sox. They didn’t change anything, he was terrible with them
His fip was 3.98 tho. Not exactly terrible, just bad luck.
Fister should be very appreciative for Dave Dombrowski’s support when he joined the Red Sox. After starting out 1-6 in Boston he managed to get his act together to win 4 of his last 7 decisions to avoid permanent banishment from MLB for poor performance. Nice to see that he has moved on from Boston, as he was too inconsistent for most Red Sox fans. Lets hope he does well with the Rangers except when they make their annual trek to Fenway Park.
Per ESPN
The 34-year-old right-hander reestablished his value with the Red Sox this past season after signing a minor-league deal with the Angels and getting claimed off waivers in June. Fister posted a 2.79 ERA during a seven-start stretch in place of injured David Price and a 4.71 ERA in 15 starts overall.
Fister is just a piece, depth pitcher, with upside that may turnout to be a horse in the rotation. Depends on the health and velocity. Good signing as long as it is on the cheap. and a single year.
Must be nice….
Should make then competitive with HOU for the ALW.
Sure. Keep telling yourself that.
I’m sorry?
^
How do we go about sarcasm on MLBTR? I know reddit they use a /s. Either way, it was sarcasm.
I got a laugh out of this
JD and his cheap signings trying to get something out of nothing. I’m betting 1 year deal for maybe 5 or 6 Million. The Rangers need at least two more starters Bartolo Colon and some other crap ball pitcher.Jon Daniels is turning into a joke with his trades and signings of late
The Rangers are sticking their finger in the frame as the window closes. Baltimore, Detroit, Toronto and Texas not acknowledging they need a rebuild or screwing up their rebuild only has benefitted the rest of the game. They’re so far off being contenders but are saddled with weak farms so they keep playing this barely-open contention window card and losing.
They are one year removed from winning the division. Injuries killed is this year along with under performing players.
Are you saying Toronto has a weak farm system? Better check your facts man it is actually very deep
No, the Toronto Blue Jays Farm system is not deep. As a former scout who has reccomended a player that has been drafted by the Jays and the Yankees, I can tell you that there is only one elite prosepct in the entire Blue Jays system[Vlad jr], a few very good ones and a few good ones and most are in the lower levels.
For example, Bischette is not an eleite prospect, he is at best a very good one, but projects and a below average major leaguer. Don’t buy into any Kool0aid that says otherwise. Vlad jr is the real deal, he has a chance to be a superstar.
lol I was an astronaut and I recommended players to the jays too.
Ignore him
Why?
I feel like the paragraph in the article that names the Rangers’ other starting pitchers explains this pretty well
Maybe you should read the article. Fister stinks. He spent most of last season in the minors and once he made it to the majors with his 3rd team of the year, he put up a 4.88 ERA.
Strikeout rate right around league average. Good ground ball rate, stuff ticked up (as noted in the article) last year. I don’t think he’s actually good or anything, but $4M for 150 IP with a 4.20-4.30 ERA (which is probably like Fister’s 60th percentile outcome) is a good deal. At the very least, he should be an upgrade over Nick Martinez and AJ Griffin, although it seems you disagree on that?
All of the projection systems have Fister at a 5++ ERA in 2018. About what he produced once he was finally called up late last season. He stinks.
what were the projections on Rich Hill or Alex Wood or Justin Turner or Chris Taylor when the Dodgers either traded for or signed them as FA’s? sometimes…..you gotta get lucky. So all teams try to bottom fish. Not even LA and NYY have the money to sign all the top FA’s and even then, they’re not sure bets.
Well, since Otani and Stanton are holding up the market guess this means the Rangers have given up the Otani sweepstakes.
I guess teams are incapable of focusing on more than one free agent at a time.
I like this for the rest of the AL West
Fister has a career 8.73 ERA at his new Texas home, this is not a good fit lol.
Better fits: Oakland, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Washington and Detroit.
Park-specific numbers, especially for visiting players, are utterly useless
Finalllly something
I am surprised the article states Fister is a lock for the rotation. It seems he would compete for the rotation and if beaten out could serve in the bullpen.
Look at their rotation options. They desperately need innings, he’s got to be a lock.
Overpay
Its a decent low risk signing. Texas isnt going to be competitive next year. Not much of a risk to sign someone cheap and hope they perform in thr first half so they can flip him. People laughing at this signing, come August Texas will be getting the last laugh when they get a decent prospect from your system in exchange for Fister. And if Fister doesnt work out its only what $5 million? Chump change
That’s a rad user name.
Fister was available for free and pitching at AAA last season, he’s not bringing back prospects even if he’s good, which he won’t be, because he’s never really been outside of 2011-2014. He was as good as AJ Griffin was last year in terms of WAR.
JD getting busy while everybody else’s GM has their thumb up their butts.
He better, the horrible team he assembled sure is missing a lot!
Do you have anything nice to say or are you still bitter about your Dodgers choking?
Why does everyone think I’m a Dodgers fan? I’m a fan of playername puns!
JD’s (Jerry Dipoto, Jon Daniels) are the only ones doing anything.
@madmanTX
Yea your man is busy signing bust outs. Have fun. I guess the real GMs have their finger in their butts missing out on Fister and his 5 ERA. Enjoy your JD’s. Boy I bet you miss Nolan Ryan!
Why are you on this thread again?
JD needs all the extra help he can get.
November 2016: 10 trades of MLB players and 16 MLB FA’s signed.
November 2017: 1 trade (Healy) and 2 FA’s (Upton and Fister) signed.
I’m quite honestly surprised more hasn’t been made of this. I can understand why, the Otani and the Braves issues certainly played their part, but damn, we are very far behind last season.
I do not see the point. So ever November MLB somehow must make ten trades by now? How many did DiPito make last November. Ten useless ones? So now we need that ever offseason?
All the offseasons before this one were all like that though.
Last year’s November trades included names like, Cameron Maybin, Pat Neshek, Carlos Ruiz, Howie Kendrick, Danny Valencia, Brian McCann, Taylor Motter, James Pazos, Mitch Haniger, Jean Segura, Ketel Marte, Taijuan Walker, you know, some pretty big names in there.
And yes, DiPoto made 6 of the 12 November trades, lol that guy is out of control!!!
It’s amazing how much things have changed… a 4.88 ERA is worth $3.5 million…
3.5 million is half a win. If Fister is actually a 4.88 ERA pitcher, that’s worth a half a win if he gives you like 90 innings. And I think the Rangers believe somewhat in his ability to perform higher than that, based on his second half performance.
Just two years ago, it cost 16MM for two years for the same from Mike Pelfrey. Glad to see prices are dropping.
Hey, Cyber Monday door busters are great
Love it
I dont have a ton in terms of expectations for the ’18 Rangers, but if Fister is able to soak up innings at an acceptable clip, you’re looking at a trade chip in July.
If not, it’s chum change. Especially for a starting pitcher on the open market.
I think he does well though. He looked great last season. 3.98 FIP with a 2mph increase in velocity is definitely a good look.
Well, Texas just got worse.
FG estimated Fister would get $9 million. Silly.
Almost 90 comments for Texas signing a marginal 34 year old rotation piece to what amounts to a one year “show me” contract.
The desperation to talk baseball transactions has hit a fevered pitch.
Here come the dominoes gents! Hope this stove is so hot we all get burned a little…in a good way friends, in a good way.
Just spitballin so don’t crucify me but how would the Rangers and Mets match up for a trade of Profar for Harvey? Seems to be a case of where both guys could use a change of scenery. I also fully seeing shooting it down from the Mets standpoint as the return of Harvey finding himself has a much higher ceiling than Profar. Again, just throwing an idea out there for conversation.
Rangers really didn’t want to sign Doug, it was just their turn. He will be released by May 1st.
Should be a nice easy fit. He should be able to slide right into that rotation comfortably.