7:46pm: Fields’ contract comes with a $1MM base salary in the Majors, and it contains opt-out provisions on April 30 and June 25, per Robert Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link).
5:13pm: Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns, who is familiar with Fields from their days together in the Astros organization, tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the plan is for Fields to open the season in Triple-A (Twitter link). He’ll be an option early in the season should the Brewers find themselves in need of bullpen reinforcements.
4:40pm: The Brewers announced that they’ve signed right-hander Josh Fields to a minor league contract. He’ll be invited to the remainder of Major League Spring Training and hope to earn a bullpen spot with the club — if not by Opening Day then early in the season. Fields, who was released by the Dodgers last week, is a client of the Boras Corporation.
Los Angeles’ decision to designate Fields for assignment and release him came as a surprise given Fields’ success in recent seasons and given the fact that he’d agreed to a $2.8MM salary in arbitration. Arbitration salaries are non-guaranteed, however, so the Dodgers only were required to pay Fields 30 days’ termination pay — a sum of about $451K.
In Fields, the Brewers are adding a 33-year-old righty who has tallied 117 1/3 innings of relief and pitched to a terrific 2.61 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and 1.22 HR/9 since being acquired by Los Angeles back in 2016. He’s an extreme fly-ball pitcher, which will be more problematic at Miller Park than at Dodger Stadium, but Fields averages nearly 95 mph on his heater with strong swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates. With Jeremy Jeffress ailing, it’s not surprising to see the Brewers add some talented depth with recent big league experience to a bullpen that already features two of the game’s biggest strikeout arms (Josh Hader and Corey Knebel).
why?
Because cheese and “meat” go so well together!!
Right?
why not
Minor league deal. Good depth.
Potentially a good pick up, but his fly ball tendencies could end up being HORRIFIC in that band box.
Would hope they give him a shot at the rotation.
i think they have solid enough rotation depth. Hader would probably start before him.
their rotation is their weakness and Hader isn’t starting.
hader was a starter in the minor leagues so it’s not totally out of the question
Hader will be the closer long before he’s a starter.
Yeah, but why would the Brewers ruin something that has worked out so well?
This guy is done son
I’d think he’d be a better match for say, Seattle or SF, bigger parks and needy bullpens
Honestly, he was a good fit for LA too. Don’t know why we got rid of him in all honesty.
If there is someone counting the inherited runners he lets score, take a look at that number. His ERA would be sky high if they included those.
Josh Fields in 2018 inherited 9 baserunners. Zero scored.
San Francisco doesn’t have a needy bullpen. It should be rather impressive this year.
The Giants have a good pitching staff. People overlook that frequently. I mean the offense is outright terrible
I don’t expect the Giants offense to be spectacular. Panik and Longoria have had great Springs. Duggar is young enough to develop a solid offense.
AAA depth. Is San Antonio a spacious park?
Get in good with Boras. (HAHAHA)
A no-brainer. Fields has pitched in meaningful games (that affects all those squiggly numbers), and hasn’t done too poorly; he’s at least acceptable. Depth if nothing else; possibly more.
Angels could have used him. Don’t understand Eppler going with injured pitchers or guys with no track record.
Will be interesting to see what happens to Fields in the Brewers’ organization. Maybe time will explain the Dodgers’ strange handling of his contract.
Kimbrel?
Perception is different than fact; I perceived him as a good pitcher here in LA and was surprised at his outright release. Wishing him well in Milwaukee…
Another body to be in the 13-18 pitching spot cycle.