Josh Fields is first minor-league signing
Six seasons ago, Josh Fields was a 24-year-old rookie third baseman who mashed 23 home runs in 100 games and a future cornerstone of the Chicago White Sox. You know, the kind of guy the Phillies currently dream of to fill a gaping hole.
Josh Fields is first minor-league signing
Matt Gelb
Six seasons ago, Josh Fields was a 24-year-old rookie third baseman who mashed 23 home runs in 100 games and a future cornerstone of the Chicago White Sox. You know, the kind of guy the Phillies currently dream of to fill a gaping hole.
He has played in 103 major-league games since 2007, been labeled as a first-round bust, and is now property of the Phillies as he attempts to revive a career that has taken him from Arkansas to Japan to Albuquerque.
Fields is the Phillies' first minor-league free agent signing, as reported by Baseball America. He'll come to spring training looking to win a bench job but is probably ticketed for triple-A Lehigh Valley for depth.
It's depth, though, at a position of need.
Fields, who turns 30 in two weeks, has not appeared in a major-league game since 2010 with Kansas City. Before that charmed 2007 season, he was rated the 45th best prospect in baseball by Baseball America. He was a two-sport star at Oklahoma State and set all sorts of passing records since broken by Brandon Weeden.
Fields spent all of last season at the Dodgers' triple-A affiliate and raked in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League to the tune of .322/.392/.488. He played at third base a majority of the time.
The Phillies think they hit on Kevin Frandsen, a player with a similar trajectory. Maybe Fields can emulate that success. Maybe not.
And that was 236 words on Josh Fields. Happy Black Friday.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
This is what Amaro is doing, worrying about has beens? Yawns!!!— twpman- The Phillies seem to avoid signing young guys with talent. They prefer old guys without.— 4thand10
- OMG, posters, chill! They signed a minor league 3B to play at AAA. This is a non story that was only written because Matt Gelb had nothing else to write about. Relax.
— syddan26 - Thanks Matt for Phillies news. The White Sox had HIGH hopes on this guy! He had/has potential. Who knows. Why not! No problem in giving it a try.— MooseBreathMints
- Per 600 at bats, he averages 21 home runs in the minors and 28 in the majors. His 713 MLB ab's are a small sample, so both the home run and batting average totals probably have a large margin of error. His career AAA average (1709 abs) is .302. A good portion of that was racked up in the PCL which as Gelb points out is a hitter's paradise. I'd knock about 25 points off that.
I think it's realistic that he could hit .275 with 20-25 home runs at the major league level. Most hitters are not in decline at 30, but given his age he's not a solution beyond 2-3 years.
It's a reasonably good signing considering there aren't any very good free agent options at 3B. There's some cheap scrap available for a team like the Phillies that thinks it could be competitive.
Obviously, it would be ideal to bring in a young prospect who they can develop. At any rate I think Fields is a better option than Frandsen, and probably equal to Wigginton but at a fraction of the price.— comin4ya23 - Bench fodder what can you expect it's November and Rube is doing his usual...nothing.— d1955h
- why worry about third base lets use the second baseman if it is a right hand batter. if its a left hand batter you don't need one.save the money.— Bernard Washabaugh
- 1Repub and RRinVA it's obama's fault— ihatenewyorkers
- Another 30 year old at AAA to stall the progress of younger players. Phil's prospects - Utley, Howard, Ruf, etc. - usually don't get to the SHOW until they are 25 or 26. Then, if they are good enough they get to sign a long term, big money deal when they are 30 or so.— Konstanty
- There are NO available 3rd basemen available, except those on their last leg, which we don't need so why not fill in and maybe we;ll have a liitle luck like we did with Victorino & Werth, both cast offs, nobody wanted. Our big need is in CF— quakercityguy
- This is simply depth in case Frandsen gets hurt and Galvis doesn't hit. We need players like this to step up when given the opportunity, hungry, yearning and something to prove. Look how it worked out for Frandsen! I'm gonna say for the 1,256,333rd time....you don't need an All Star player at every single position to win a WS.— Mark1npt
- Fact: This is what GM's who win World Series do. It is the Pete Incavigilia's, Eisenreich, Werth types that come into their own(or fiond a past bat) that put a team over the top. They don;t have to have a ten year ceiling, they could just have a good solid three months and be worth it. This is what Gillick did as well as the Cardinals for the last thirty years.— UncleStosh
- I've thought for awhile that Josh Fields was just what the Phillies needed to put themselves over the top....here we go!!!— Bobphxville
- You never know about guys like this. Werth was 29 when the Phils signed him and the Cards signed Ludwick at 29 and at 30 he hit 37 hrs. Not saying Fields will do the same but can't hurt to sign him.— T Schick
- This Phillies shill gets paid to write a column of at least 235 words a week, no matter how bad. And this one stinks.— Wilhelm Von Humboldt
