The Hot Stove, which had nearly frozen over, flickered to life today and whoo boy! A major signing it was!(Just kidding there, team). The Texas Rangers must have decided to fill in their rotation from the back as they signed perennial 5'th starter Doug Fister to a 1 yr/$3.5 M contract with $500 K in incentive bonuses and a team option for $4.5 M with $500 K in more incentives with a $500 K buyout for 2019.
Fister's stock had a bit of a resurgence last year. He originally signed a minor league deal with the Angels last offseason but exercised an opt-out clause on June 21 and signed with the Red Sox where he his average FB velocity, which had been south of 88 MPH for several years ticked up to almost 90 MPH. He also mixed in about 10% more breaking balls than in recent seasons. His line for 2017 was 5-9, 4.88, 90.1 IP, 8.27 K/9, 3.79 BB/9, 50.6 GB%. The K rate increased along with the velocity and may have been helped by the additional use of breaking balls. His FIP and xFIP were almost a run lower than is ERA.
The Rangers get a pitcher who is likely to eat some innings at the back of the rotation. Fister has had his ups and downs as a pitcher, but since 2009 he's had just one season, 2015, in which the dollar value of his performance was less than $9 M which gives the Rangers an excellent chance of getting surplus value from him, which is good as long as they don't have someone better to turn to instead.
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Tho MLBTR didn't think much about Doug Fister (SF draftee 2003), Sporting News 13th best SP for 2018 gets a $4M contract guaranteed for 1 year from a team without a rotation! Does this set the bottom for a pitcher with a near zero WAR for the last 3 years? What's a guy that actually wins games worth? Chacin will get 20, Chatwood 30, Lynn and Cobb 40 or 50, and the "aces" -- Arrieta and Darvish will threaten 100 because there's no one else!
ReplyDeleteAnother bottom feeder contract will make Cueto's 88 look reasonable!
Fister has actually earned 2.5 fWAR over the last 2 seasons. 4.1 over his last 4. Not great, but not nothing either. Great chance to outperform his contract over the next 2 seasons for the Rangers.
DeleteKen Rosenthal: the Athletics are in agreement with Yusmeiro Petit on a two-year, $10MM contract with a third-year club option.
ReplyDeleteDo well, Yusmeiro, and a nice contract
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If anyone deserves to earn a few $ M in MLB, it's Yusmeiro Petit. Very happy for him.
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