TODAY: The structure of Feldman’s contract bonuses is broken down by Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link). The right-hander will earn an extra $100K when and if he makes his tenth start of the season, and he’ll earn either $100K or $200K as a bonus for each start thereafter, up to 25 starts. Feldman can also earn $100K for making 25 relief appearances, $200K for 30 and 35 relief appearances, and then $250K for 40, 45, 50 and 55 games pitched out of the bullpen.
THURSDAY: The deal is official, with Cincinnati announcing it.
WEDNESDAY: The Reds have agreed to a one-year deal with righty Scott Feldman, per Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). He will receive a $2.3MM guarantee and can earn another $2.2MM via incentives. With a physical already completed, it seems this agreement lacks only a club announcement to be official.
Soon to turn 34, Feldman is coming off of a somewhat curious 2016 campaign. After dealing with shoulder issues late in 2015, he was seen as a question mark heading into camp in the final year of his deal with the Astros. He ended up mostly being relegated to the bullpen, but provided Houston with 62 frames of 2.90 ERA pitching.
Though he seemed to have settled into a useful role for the Astros, Feldman ended up being a somewhat surprising trade deadline mover. He was shipped to the Blue Jays, who took on the $2.75MM or so he was still owed, in exchange for prospect Lupe Chavez. But things didn’t work out for Feldman in Toronto, as he was tagged for 14 earned runs on 23 hits over his 15 innings.
For Cincinnati, Feldman will be asked to provide a steadying presence to a rotation that just lost Dan Straily in a trade. Over 2013-15, the righty turned in 470 1/3 frames of 3.83 ERA ball, with 5.7 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9, and something approaching that kind of workmanlike production would be most welcome. If he’s not effective in a starting role, or a young arm proves worthy of an opportunity, then Feldman could also help deepen the bullpen.
and to think the cubs got arrieta and strop for less than 4 months of this dude
Remember, prospects are supposed to be treated as worthless garbage while “proven” MLB players like Scott Feldman have to be valued.
Nobody has ever once stated that or had that though enter their head lol
Did you miss all the “he hasn’t proven anything in the bigs” talk that surrounds every single trade topic
Particularly Jose De Leon
Jake Arrieta was 27 years old when he was traded. He was far from a prospect at that point.
Agreed he was more of a former prospect that lost his luster
Don’t forget about the great Steve Clevinger!
Dumpster Dan’s worst trade EVER!
This was (Jake
Good buy. If he repeats that production, it’ll be a bargain.
I was hoping the Blue Jays would bring him back as a long reliever and for rotation depth, but he wouldn’t have been worth that kind of money to us I don’t think.
Good sign for them. Maybe they can do what their division rivals the Cubs did with him 4 years ago?
No
There’s not one person in the Reds front office that possess the foresight, initiative, or simple baseball talent to make a trade like that happen.
They could always get lucky…
…like the Cubs did.
False. The way the Cubs won is exactly in accord with the plan Epstein laid out during his opening press conference.
That’s kind of a silly comment. Look who the Reds stole for Matt Latos and Aflredo Simon the last few years.
If you don’t know, Latos netted Anthony DeSclafani (and a prospect) while Latos got released.
Simon netted Suarez (+ a prospect) and Simon was awful.
You’re being sarcastic right?
You just don’t come off as knowing what you’re talking about…I think that’s what he was trying to say.
Veteran presence for a young rotation, someone who they can push for innings (without reallying worrying about long term consequences). Reading about Feldman, he sounds a lot like Dan Straily (who he replaces) – same kinda pitcher, same kinda pitches.
Robert Stephenson, Cody Reed, and Amir Garrett were likely going to be competing for two rotation spots to start the year, now they have some more serious competition added to the mix. He’ll almost certainly open the season in the rotation (if he’s healthy), but it’s reassuring that Feldman experienced working out of the bullpen if things go well and one of the young arms pushes for his rotation spot.
veteran presents!
Good deal. If the return on investment can be half as good as what his father (Corey Feldman) delivered on B movie thrillers, that would be fantastic.
Literally just said out loud “no way…..” and proceeded to look up and see if he was actually Corey Feldman’s kid, despite all logic in my brain stating it’s not possible. Well done.
Oh man, my bad. Sorry, when I hear “Feldman”, all I can think is Corey
SAME which is why I couldn’t believe that it was true, but looked it up anyways. To me he’s Mouth, he’s Edgar Frog, he’s the little kid in Gremlins!
He and Tom Hanks both did their finest work in The Burbs.
I thought he was Marty Feldmans kid
That 2.85 BB/9 career mark would be much higher if he was and had his father’s eyes.
Am I the only person who thinks of Eric Byrnes as the Third Corey?
Nice cheap add and would be a great flip candidate as soon as he runs 3 good ones in a row. Let Garrett, Reed
Cincy made a smart move.
How are the incentives ($2.2M) calculated for this kind of deal? It’s highly improbable that he would hit all the benchmarks, and the $2.2 number seems to account for that because it’s lower than if you just added all the possible bonuses together.
Good sign by the Reds. He obviously wasn’t brought in to be the ace, but every day he throws, he should be able to give us innings, so that our bullpen doesn’t get overused. And hey if he pitches well then maybe you could see what he would be worth at the trade deadline