Doug Fister reaches an agreement to pitch for the Rangers in 2018.

In processed animal foods, a filler is an ingredient added to provide dietary fiber, bulk or some other non-nutritive purpose. It is merely a cost-saving method to provide bulk but not sustenance.

Doug Fister made fifteen starts for the Boston Red Sox in 2017. He was able to make it into the sixth inning in only  seven of them.

He averaged five innings per start.

Doug Fister is filler.

Fister started the season 0-5. He didn’t make his first start with the Red Sox until June, when they picked him up off waivers after being signed in the off-season by the Angels, but released

After that, he won five of his next seven decisions, including two wins over Cleveland, one a 9-1 complete game win. His ERA in that stretch was 2.79, and he held opponents to a .194 average.

His last four starts, he reverted back, lasting 4.0 innings, 2.0 innings, and 5.1 innings twice.

He lasted 1.1 innings in his Division Series start against the Astros.

Overall, Fister was 5-9 with a 4.88 ERA, a WHIP of 1.384. He did have his best strikeout-per-nine-innings rate of his career, 8.3, up from the 5.6 per nine he averaged the previous three seasons. The 34-year-old right-hander, it seems, was able to rediscover some of the velocity that had leaked out of his arm.

He is about to get a $3.5 million contract with the Rangers, pending a physical. Not much to get excited about except about this time last year, Daniels jumped on a pitcher coming off a much worse season, and threw $10 million at him.

Seems Daniels might have learned from the Cashner contract. Don’t bid against yourself.

This is purely a depth signage. The Rangers need any able bodied pitchers they can get.

For now, the Rangers have three starters: Hamels, Perez and Fister. They still need a whole lot of filler.