Rangers sign free agent RHP Doug Fister to one-year contract

The Texas Rangers today announced that the club has signed free agent right-handed pitcher Doug Fister to a one-year contract for the 2018 season with a club option for 2019. Financial terms were not disclosed.
 
Fister, who will turn 34 years old in February, went 5-9 with a 4.88 ERA over 18 games/15 starts for the Boston Red Sox in 2017, posting a career-best 8.3 strikeouts per 9 innings. Over a 7-start span from July 31-September 6, he went 5-2 with a 2.79 ERA (15 ER/48.1 IP) and .194 opponents batting average, a stretch which included a complete-game win on August 22 at Cleveland. For the year, Fister held right-handed batters to a career-low .208 batting average with a .589 OPS figure,
 
Fister originally signed with the Los Angeles Angels on May 20, and made 3 starts for Triple-A Salt Lake before he was acquired by the Red Sox in a June 23 waiver claim. Fister was the Boston starter in Game 3 of this year's American League Division Series versus the Houston Astros, the Red Sox' lone win in the series.
 
The 6-foot-8 right-hander owns five seasons of 10-or-more wins, including a career-high 16 victories with Washington in 2014, when he finished 8th in National League Cy Young Award voting. Among pitchers with at least 1250.0 innings since 2009, Fister ranks among MLB leaders in walks per 9 innings (8th, 2.08), home runs allowed per 9 (9th, 0.86), ERA (16th, 3.68) and WHIP (19th, 1.250).
 
Fister has made postseason starts in five of the past eight seasons beginning 2011, and he is one of 14 pitchers in major league history to make at least 7 consecutive quality starts in the postseason (2011-14). One of his postseason quality starts came with Detroit in 2011 American League Championship Series Game 3 against the Rangers, when he posted the Tigers' first win of the series.
 
With the signing of Fister, the Rangers have 39 players on the major league roster.