Nettles batted .328 with 26 stolen bases and 69 runs scored for Salt Lake City to earn a second chance with the big league club. He made the most of his second chance, batting .292 with nineteen stolen bases and scoring twenty runs at the top of the Angels' batting order.
Nettles was handed the centerfield job heading into the 1975 campaign, but lost it to Mickey Rivers a month into the season. Playing one of the corner outfield positions and occasionally filling in for Rivers in center the rest of the way, Nettles batted .231 with fifty runs scored. He stole 22 bases, but was caught fifteen times. He and Jim Spencer were traded to the Chicago White Sox for Bill Melton and Steve Dunning on December 11, 1975.[2]
Nettles was one of many young outfielders competing for the White Sox's centerfield job in Spring training 1976.[3] With Chet Lemon eventually named the Chisox's centerfielder, Nettles split the season between the Toledo Mud Hens and Iowa Oaks, batting a combined .232 in his final professional season.
Nettles died from complications of pancreatic cancer on January 24, 2017.[4]