Texas Rangers: Prince Fielder Forced To Call It A Career

The Texas Rangers Prince Fielder won’t be able to play MLB baseball again after being deemed medically disabled by doctors. Fielder has had a neck injury ever since he was traded to the Rangers in a deal that sent Ian Kinsler to the Detroit tigers 3 years ago.

Prince Fielder’s time with the Texas Rangers was a true roller coaster, missing most of the first year with the club because of his first neck surgery he then was named MLB “comeback player of the year” in his 2nd year with the Rangers. This final year consisted of an awkward start because he really couldn’t play very much defense and was struggling at the plate.

Even though he was struggling, manager Jeff Banister stuck with him and there really wasn’t another way to handle that situation since he is a veteran and under contract until 2020. If Banister would have sat him then he would be running the risk of sending the wrong message to the rest of the team and with the Texas Rangers it seems that team chemistry is what makes them so great.

Jeff Banister has brought in a “Never Ever Quit” mentality and Prince Fielder may have demonstrated that the most out of anyone on the team in his time with the Rangers. He had picked up his bat a little around the all-star break and was providing some energy when it was needed.

In his press conference he said that this was the year he had felt the best about baseball mentally and that his body just gave out on him. The announcement was very emotional, a monster of a man in size was in a neck brace and had his feelings out in full presentation as he struggled to get words to the mic.

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I believe the understanding of who Prince Fielder is during his career has been a father first and foremost. This has been apparent while seeing him celebrate the HR derby years ago with his two boys and was even more apparent as they sat next to him during the announcement, with their heads down hiding tears. Fielder’s father was a major leaguer as well and so not being able to play the game and stay in an environment that he has been in for most of his life will, “really suck” as his own words described.

Now for some numbers though, Prince Fielder and his father Cecil Fielder have the same number of career HRs (316) but Cecil does have a World Series ring, which means one thing. THE TEXAS RANGERS ARE DESTINED TO GET PRINCE FIELDER A WORLD SERIES RING THIS YEAR! Yeah, that’s happening.

Next: Texas Rangers Really Do Never Ever Quit

p.s.- Prince Fielder’s contract runs through 2020 and since he isn’t really retiring but is medically disabled then he will be receiving all of the guaranteed money remaining. The Texas Rangers had insurance on the contract for a situation such as this, the payout will be per year until 2020 as follows:
Detroit Tigers to pay $6 million
Texas Rangers to pay $9 million
Insurance to pay $9 million