When the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired reliever Josh Fields from the Houston Astros at the 2016 non-waiver trade deadline, his contributions the last two seasons could not have been predicted.
He had a 6.89 ERA in 15 appearances with Houston at the time, but after coming over to Los Angeles he yielded a 2.79 ERA in 22 appearances to close out the season. Fields’ strong close to the season earned him a $1.05 million salary, avoiding arbitration for the 2017 season.
He put together another strong campaign with the Dodgers, emerging as a trusted reliever for manager Dave Roberts.
Fields again was eligible for salary arbitration this offseason, which he and the Dodgers avoided by agreeing to a one-year, $2.2 million contract, according to Robert Murray of FanRag Sports:
Source: #Dodgers, Josh Fields settle at $2,200,000, avoiding arbitration.
— Robert Murray (@RobertMurrayFRS) January 12, 2018
In 57 appearances for the Dodgers last season, Fields went 5-0 with a 2.84 ERA, 4.18 FIP and 0.97 WHIP while striking out 60 and walking 15 in 57 innings of work.
Fields bounced back and forth between Triple-A Oklahoma City and the Majors at the beginning of the season, in part due to fatigue. He eventually settled in with the Dodgers and was strong against right-handed batters, holding them to a .169/.224/.306 slash line.
Fields struggled a bit in the postseason, as he gave up four hits and two runs in one inning across four appearances. Included in that was allowing back-to-back home runs in Game 2 of the World Series against his former team.
The right-hander figures to continue playing a significant role for the Dodgers bullpen this season.
