Andrew Cashner turned in arguably the worst season of his career in 2016, but the Texas Rangers took a chance on him Friday to the tune of a one-year, $10 million contract.
Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported the terms of the agreement. TR Sullivan of MLB.com also passed along word of the free-agent signing.
Cashner started his career with the Chicago Cubs and pitched down the stretch of the 2016 season for the Miami Marlins after they acquired him from the San Diego Padres via trade. He posted a 5.98 ERA and 1.75 WHIP in 12 appearances for Miami, which both would have represented career-worst numbers throughout an entire season.
However, Cashner flashed his potential as a No. 2 or 3 starter in 2013 and 2014 with the Padres. He posted a 1.13 WHIP in each season and appeared to be coming into his own as an impact pitcher at the major league level. Still, there was a drastic decline in performance the next two years:
Injuries are part of the concern, as he went on disabled list in 2016 with a strained neck and dealt with a shoulder injury and elbow injury in 2014 that limited him to just 19 starts. Considering he hasn’t been the same since that 2014 campaign, it is not hard to speculate his health impacted his overall performance.
At his best, Cashner’s fastball often exceeds 95 mph, per FanGraphs. If he can remain healthy in 2017 and tap into the effective power pitcher he was from 2013-14, the Rangers will end up with one of the better under-the-radar signings of the offseason.
He’ll likely join a rotation headlined by Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish. Finding more mid-rotation options to bolster the group behind those co-aces was one of the biggest things on the team’s offseason to-do list. A bounce-back year from the newest addition would be a key step in the right direction.
He is still just 30 years old and should be relatively fresh considering he has never pitched more than 184.2 innings in a season throughout his career. Cashner’s new team hopes that translates into an effective 2017 effort.
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