The Rangers have agreed to a minors deal with righty Josh Fields, per Bob Nightengale of the USA Today. The deal will pay Fields $850K if he reaches the majors, per Nightengale, with a chance for him to earn an extra $200K in incentives.
The 33-year-old Fields opted out of his contract with Milwaukee on April 30 after being released mid-spring by Los Angeles, the club with whom he’d spent the previous two and a half seasons.
Acquired in mid-2016 for now-top prospect Yordan Alvarez, Fields excelled at preventing runs for the Dodgers – he posted a 2.57 ERA with the club over the last two seasons, in addition to the 2.79 mark he put up in 19 innings down the 2016 stretch – but the peripherals never quite aligned. Fields’ xFIP- dropped to a career-low 114 last season, a mark that surely made modern front offices cringe.
He’ll hope to soon join a Ranger bullpen that’s been among the league’s worst this season, and should get ample high-leverage opportunity in Arlington upon arrival.
Never fully understood why the Dodgers let him go. Seemed like a solid relief pitcher for $2.85 million last year.
My take is that he was too prone to giving up home runs and that’s how you beat LA. Dodger Stadium can suppress fly balls and our outfield is pretty good about playing defense, so the FO cut bait. Hurts too because we gave up Yordan Alvarez to get Fields and then we couldn’t trade him to anyone. They must know something we don’t.
teams no longer care about ERA, especially when evaluating relievers
As a Dodger fan it hurts that we gave up YA for a middle relief pitcher.We never get over on teams and the Astros seem to have the burglars mask on every deal.Kudos to the Astros though because that’s the goal I’m just sad that my team was the victim:(
That would’ve made sense if Baez was released after the 2017 season. Fields actually cut his HR rate almost in half during the 2018 season. His HR/9 had been lowering but so had his K/9. I think the current state of MLB GM’s value strikeouts more than everything.
I agree, bigkempin. Velocity, strikeouts, and as others have said in the comments section of prior Fields posts, option years remaining outweighed anything else Fields had in his favor in Friedman’s eyes.
The way that Friedman soured on J.P. Howell a few years back bothered me even more than his unceremonious dumping of Fields.