January 29th, 8:37pm: The Diamondbacks have announced the signing.
January 28th, 5:44pm: The Diamondbacks have agreed to contract terms with right-hander Neftali Feliz, Robert Murray of FanRag Sports tweets. A source close to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation confirms the news, and Cotillo also adds that it’s a minor-league pact that includes an invitation to spring training.
Feliz’ future looked incredibly bright from the outset. Upon first reaching the majors in 2009, Feliz pitched out of the bullpen in 20 games for the Rangers to the tune of a remarkable 1.74 ERA. He followed up his opening act with an excellent 2010 campaign during which he saved 40 games for Texas while posting a spectacular 3.68 WPA en route to winning the Rookie of the Year award.
It wasn’t until 2012 that things took a turn for the worse. The Rangers opted to move Feliz to the rotation at the beginning of the year, and while his first seven starts looked good on the surface (3.14 ERA and a 3-1 record), his peripherals painted a dramatically different picture headlined by an ugly 4.85 BB/9. Feliz would ultimately undergo Tommy John surgery in 2013, missing the entire season. Upon his return in 2014, the righty posted a 1.99 ERA across 31 2/3 innings, but with an uninspiring 17.2% strikeout rate.
Feliz’ career seemed at its valley following the 2015 season. He was hit hard with the Rangers in 19 2/3 innings across April and May, prompting the club to cut him. His results down the stretch with the Tigers were even more disastrous. But when the Pirates took a chance on him the following season, he didn’t disappoint; Feliz made 62 appearances for the Bucs in 2016 while pitching to a 3.52 ERA and 3.72 xFIP. His velocity rebounded, his strikeout numbers were his career best for a full season, and he appeared to be positioning himself for a nice contract before being shut down on September 3rd due to an arm injury.
That injury wasn’t enough to deter the Brewers, however, who signed him to a one-year, $5.35MM deal to be their 2017 closer. Feliz wasn’t quite able to deliver on that investment, however, and on June 19th the club bet instead on the young Corey Knebel by releasing Feliz. He latched on with the Royals, and pitched 19 innings of 4.74-ERA baseball for them across the remainder of the campaign.
Feliz joins Antonio Bastardo, Kris Medlen, Fernando Salas, Yoshihisa Hirano and Jake Buchanan as bullpen candidates to sign minor-league deals with Arizona within the past 40 days. That means he’ll face a crowded competition for a few available reliever jobs behind Archie Bradley, Brad Boxberger, Andrew Chafin, T.J. McFarland and Randall Delgado.
Epic disaster in that brewers uniform….good luck dbacks
That is a good signing for them.
Ballsy call without the terms being public, yet.
Minor league deal.
Once that was public knowledge, then yeah.
Oh boy, good luck with that!
Good signing or bad depending on the terms. That is my motto with every signing
Ya its just a minor league deal.
Cant really go wrong with those.
D-Backs signing a bunch of veteran relievers of late: Feliz, Antonio Bastardo, Michael Blazek and Fernando Salas.
Game 6 of the 2011 World Series is the baseball equivalent of Super Bowl 51.
Cruz has to catch that ball. He was a monster with the bat but was in shock he didn’t catch that ball to end the game.
As a cards fan glad he didn’t, but have always thanked the gods he didn’t. Nelson really looked list on that ball.
Remember when he won rookie of the year?
Feliz, Daniel Bard, Joba Chamberlain, maybe joe Biagini. Moral of the story leave your shut down relievers in the bullpen. Unless their Chris Sale or David Price ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They’re*
Also wainwright…. wait, nevermind..
Minor league signing with a spring training invite. I would say this a good signing for the dbacks. A half dozen or so arms with MLB experience have been signed to similar contracts with the dbacks this offseason. Similar to what Hazen did last offseason.
Why do so many people hate signings like this? I understand he struggled last year, but there is no risk in this signing. If he fails, they can release him without any financial consequences. If he succeeds, then they just made a great signing.
It’s really annoying when you see some people comment about how bad the signing was when it’s either the league minimum or spring invite. All organization do that to many players that have a very shaky past. It’s not bad signing for any organization to do so.
It’s because they live in a world of absolutes, players are either great and deserve 6,7,8 year deals or they suck, and shouldn’t be on the team. These are the people that don’t really understand baseball, they think they do but they don’t actually.
These people are the types of fans who call into your local sports talk station and say you know what are teams needs? We need a guy like Stanton or we need a pitcher like Kershaw! They talk as if these guys are realiably available and can be had for the backup catcher, backup SS and the top prospect who’s outside the top 100.
I like this signing. Very low risk, with a high upside. Neftali has good stuff.
Had.
Probably minor league deal. Or at least it should be.
This is like an incomplete story, it talks about 2 years of his career but mentions nothing about his downfall. Odd.
I got banned from McCovey Chronicles I just joked about the joke the Giants move are garbage. hhHHHH thne they ban me? ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hhahhahahahhah Commies, ever one of you, you aint free speech, fool u an embarrassment.
What is with the unintelligible grammar?
The comment section on that site is pretty much just a leftist circle jerk, with about 1/3 of the comments actually being baseball related. Some commenters are well informed, but most of them just want to talk about what they had for lunch and why they don’t like Trump. It’s a bummer because Grant Brisbe is a fantastic writer.
I bet you know plenty about the “circle jerk scene”.
The above post ⬆️ just proves your point JoeyPankake!
And we’re supposed to care about you being banned on some other message board?
He honestly did pretty good for the Royals when they got him on a waiver claim towards the end of the year. Good signing. Gotta agree with the statements saying theres no risk, so why complain??
Well I guess it wasnt a waiver claim, but they signed him after Milwaukee cut him loose
Trump 2020, fools we making america great again and a buch of you queermos gonna get left behind. My 401K is looking nice bro. Kill yourself comie.
Classy
Something so great should be capitalized, don’t you
think? Only russian propagandists would fail to do so.
that’s enough of that
I seriously doubt anyone using the word “queermos” is intelligent enough to even get a job that provides a 401k let alone has a nice looking one, bro. Nice try though.
Another idiot posts !
I’m gonna go buy a new ride. STI, Trump affect.
Finally able to buy a bus pass and ditch the bicycle?
Ha!
Really? Who knew Feliz signing would have that effect. Would you be buying a new ride if he had signed with the Marlins? If it was a major league contract would you be getting a new house?
STI, sexually transmitted infection. Sounds like you need to see a doctor.
Yawn. I really feel bad for MLBTR this offseason.
Hirano was signed for 2/$6 mil, not on a minor league deal.
Another name part of the Braves/Rangers Mark Texiera trade that still haunts us to this day, ugh..
damn shame what the rangers did to that dog…
And there about to do the same thing to Matt Bush this season.
Smart move…if Feliz (or any of the other journeyman RPs they signed) pan out then it’s either an extra piece to a lights out bull-pen, or ship them off to a contender for some nice prospects…
Gonzalez, Blue Jays close to deal
Felix & Bastardo….Wow what a pair