CLEVELAND — It is no secret that the Cleveland Indians were looking to upgrade their outfield heading into the offseason, and they may be nearing a deal to address it.
According to Matt Loede of SI.com and multiple reports, the Indians are nearing a deal for free agent outfielder Domingo Santana, which if a contract agreement is reached, would give Cleveland 10 outfielders heading into spring training.
Currently, the Indians have Greg Allen, Jake Bauers, Delino DeShields Jr., Daniel Johnson, Jordan Luplow, Oscar Mercado, Tyler Naquin, Franmil Reyes and Bradley Zimmer expected to compete for playing time in the outfield this year.
Mercado is expected to be the team’s every-day center fielder, but the corner spots are very much up for the taking.
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Santana would give the Indians a boost in power in the lineup.
Over his six years with the Houston Astros (2014-2015), Milwaukee Brewers (2015-2018) and Seattle Mariners (2019), Santana has slugged 75 home runs with 84 doubles, two triples, 232 runs batted in, 227 scored and 417 hits in 1,610 at-bats.
Santana has a career batting average of .259 with a .343/.453/.797 split of on-base, slugging and on-base-plus-slugging percentages over 492 games played.
Pitchers and catchers report to Goodyear, Arizona on Tuesday, February 11, while the full squad is set to start their preparations on Saturday, February 15. The Indians open the 2020 spring training schedule against the Cincinnati Reds at Goodyear Ballpark on Saturday, February 22.
This spring, the Indians will play 15 games as the home team, plus another 18 on the road. Along with eight weekend home games, the Indians will have four split-squad days (Feb. 29, March 1, March 9 and March 17) in Cactus League play.
The Indians will wrap up spring training with two exhibition games against the defending American League Champion Astros in Houston on March 23-24 before reporting to Progressive Field in Cleveland for the start of the 2020 regular season against the Detroit Tigers on March 26.