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Prince Fielder injury update: Texas Rangers first baseman Prince Fielder is "seriously considering" having surgery to deal with the herniated disc in his neck, according to Jeff Wilson. Such surgery would be season-ending.
The above two sentences pretty much say it all, I think. If Fielder is going to need surgery, and if surgery would get him fixed, part of me feels like he should go ahead and get it done now, so he's good to go in 2015. The Rangers have Fielder for six more years after this one, after all, and they need him healthy and productive beyond 2014.
If Fielder's contract is insured at 75% -- which, from what I understand, is the normal rate -- the Rangers would end up getting about $13.5 million back from insurance. That, combined with the roughly $6 million they'd get from insurance on Matt Harrison, if he's out for the year, would potentially give them $20 million in reimbursements which, theoretically, they could apply towards adding someone, either this year or next year.