4:04pm: Niese’s deal comes with a $1MM major league salary and up to $450K in incentives, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets. There’s a June 1 opt-out date, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets.
3:08pm: The Rangers have signed left-hander Jon Niese to a minor league contract, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reports (via Twitter). The deal comes with an invitation to big league camp.
Since debuting in the majors in 2008, the 31-year-old Niese has mostly served as a capable starter. However, he’s essentially joining the Rangers off back-to-back lost seasons. As a starter and reliever in 2016, Niese combined for 121 innings of 5.50 ERA ball with the Mets and Pirates before undergoing season-ending knee surgery that August. He hasn’t been able to find a guaranteed contract since, as he inked a minor league deal with the Yankees last February and then another with the club shortly after it released him in March. Niese ended up going all of last season without pitching competitively for either the Yankees or any other organization.
With his new club, Niese will reunite with assistant pitching coach Dan Warthen, who was the Mets’ pitching coach during Niese’s two tenures with the team, as Jeff Wilson of the Star-Telegram notes on Twitter. The soft-tossing Niese generally fared well under Warthen’s tutelage in New York, where he logged a 3.99 ERA/3.88 FIP with 7.0 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 across 188 appearances, 179 starts and 1,079 1/3 innings.
Given the uncertainty in Texas’ rotation beyond the unspectacular-looking quintet of Cole Hamels, Matt Moore, Mike Minor, Doug Fister and Martin Perez, who’s recovering from surgery to his non-throwing elbow, Niese could find himself back on a major league mound sometime in 2018. First, though, he’ll have to stick with the organization through the spring.
Nice move.
Woo hoo
What ended up happening to him last season?
The answer to that question should have been included. Wondering same
just as Micheal responded I am amazed that any body able to get paid $4334 in 4 weeks on the internet
follow this link….
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Lol this guy b*tch*d about his defense and the six-man rotation the Mets deployed back in 2015 (when he was also the 6th best starter) after being traded to Pittsburgh.
Then 8 months later, he gets reacquired by the Mets after the Pirates GM said he would have rather traded for junk than Niese.
He was damaged goods when he got to the pirates. You know that there was a rash of derailed careers after their 6 man rotation in 2015; just another stupid program for a team with doctors and trainers that had worked for Jack Lalane previously.
That’s Very Niese
Niese try
Didn’t Arizona want him? They took ex-Mets Bastardo and Salas as NRIs…
Man, rangers are looking pretty awful.
Looks like they are bargain basement hunting for sure! Fighting for 3rd place with the Mariners in that division !
Do you actually have that much faith in the Angels pitching?
Comparing angels pitching staff to the rangers pitching staff is a waste of time. Who has the better offense/bullpen?
jb19 Why because both pitching staffs are terrible?
I prefer anything over what the rangers got going on, but those injury riddled SPs in Aneheim are difficult to count on over the course of a 162 game year… the difference between the two will be decided between the offense and bullpen. In my opinion.
Lol then go cheer on the Marlins.
No! Not really ! Only if they stay healthy ! But I do think the Angels have improved quite a bit! Offensively
and defensively ! They should compete for a WC if they do stay healthy !
Never seen this many left handed starters. Perfect setup for the ballpark there gonna pitch in.
Astros probably going to struggle to score runs against all these lefties in Arlington next year….
Isn’t it easier to hit it out of left field in that park?
Arlington has that jet stream going toward RF and right center.
Eh….why not. Someone’s gotta eat some innings.
Imagine you could be as irrelevant and bad at your job as him and still taking in $1 million for less than a year’s work.
He’s in the top 200 starting pitchers in the entire world. Imagine that.
How is this better than giving a young prospect a chance to pitch? Niese is Grade A garbage.
The rangers have no starting pitcher prospects who are even close to ready so this move won’t effect them at all..
Still love the fact that Niese got a nose job years back payed by Carlos Beltran lmaooo
Job Niese is a terrible signing.