Major League Baseball

Texas Rangers: How can they still use Prince Fielder?

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:37 p.m. ET

Fansided, Alex Al-Kazzaz/FanSided via Nolan Writin'

Last August, Prince Fielder made a shocking and heart-breaking announcement. The announcement was that he was done playing baseball. Though he did state that he isn’t retiring. His current contract ends in 2020 and he’ll spend the next four years on the 60-day disabled list. Now even though he won’t be playing, he can still make an impact for the Texas Rangers organization.

Ken Rosenthal was the one who broke the news on August 9. According to Rosenthal, doctors would not clear him to play. Basically, Fielder retired as an active player, but he hasn’t officially retired from baseball. In other words, he’s still a member of the Texas Rangers organization.

Per Stefan Stevenson, Fielder was diagnosed with a herniated disk in his neck. According to Evan Grant, the herniation was in the C4-C5 area of his neck. On July 29th, he underwent surgery, ruling him out the rest of season, and unfortunately, ending his career.

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The question on everybody’s mind is what should Texas do with Prince? He still has his contract, meaning he will be earning the $96 million he’s owed in the next four years. As said earlier, he’ll be on the 60-day disabled list during these four years.

Fielder can utilize the next four seasons training and mentoring players. His presence provides veteran leadership to the team. Texas’ young talents like Rougned Odor, Normar Mazara, Jurickson Profar and Joey Gallo can learn and benefit from Fielder’s leadership. It would certainly impact their future. Learning from the likes of Fielder, Adrian Beltre, Jonathan Lucroy, and Elvis Andrus is certainly ideal.

Perhaps once his current contract expires, Fielder can be hired to work in the Texas Rangers front office or join the Rangers coaching staff. No such thing has been discussed yet. We’ll just have to wait and see how things go.