The Indians on Sunday announced that the signing of free-agent third baseman Juan Uribe to a one-year deal is now official.
Uribe corrected his visa issues, made it to camp in Goodyear, Ariz., this past weekend and passed his physical, finally allowing the one-year deal to become official more than a week after the agreement was reportedly reached. He’ll make a reported $4 million plus incentives for the 2016 season.
Uribe, who turns 37 in March, provides the Indians with a veteran option in addition to Giovanny Urshela and will be the starting third baseman. Last season, Uribe hit .253 with a .320 on-base percentage, 14 home runs and 43 RBI in 119 games between the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and New York Mets. He had 1.9 WAR (wins above replacement) in 2015, according to FanGraphs, after amassing 3.6 WAR with the Dodgers in 2014.
Uribe had a half-day in camp on Sunday and will be eased into things this spring.
“It’s been pretty apparent he’s been working out,” Indians manager Terry Francona told reporters in Goodyear. “We’ll take a few days to make sure he’s ready to go.”
Urshela, 24, showed his value defensively at third base last season but struggled at the plate, hitting .225 with a .608 OPS (on base plus slugging) while dealing with back and shoulder issues. At times, it seemed the Indians were caught between thinking Urshela wasn’t able to properly be evaluated because of his injuries but also not wanting to hand the everyday job to him just yet.
It’s likely that Urshela will now open the season at Triple-A Columbus to continue to receive everyday at-bats. Utility man Jose Ramirez is slated to back up Uribe at third base when needed.
“We were trying to get Uribe all winter,” Francona said.
“The things we said all winter were very honest. If Gio was our third baseman, we were OK with that. If Gio has to go to Triple-A to get some at-bats, we’d be OK with that too because we think it’d be good for him. Gio wasn’t quite ready offensively when he got to Cleveland last year, and the fact that he was beat up didn’t help.”
Due to the 80-game suspension to outfielder Abraham Almonte for a failed drug test that revealed performance-enhancing drugs, no secondary move on the 40-man roster is needed.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians.