Former All-Star Escobar added for infield depth
Full-squad date will arrive with nearly full team in camp
SARASOTA, FLA. – The Orioles got a little older Saturday with the free-agent signing of veteran infielder Alcides Escobar, who agreed to a minor league deal with an invitation to major league spring training.
Escobar, 32, is not exactly the type of fringe player that typically signs a minor league contract in February. He’s a former All-Star and Gold Glove shortstop who gives the Orioles experience and additional middle-infield depth.
“Alcides Escobar will add a great veteran option to the middle-infield competition we have brought into this camp,’’ executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said in a statement. “We look forward to having him join us here in Sarasota and enter the mix.”
Escobar owns a .258 career batting average and has been a durable player over 11 seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers and Kansas City Royals. He played all 162 games in three of the past five seasons and averaged 154 games over the nine seasons since he became a full-time major league player.
Last season, Escobar batted .231/.279/.313 with 29 extra-base hits and 34 RBIs while playing four positions — shortstop, third base, center field and second base — in 140 games.
That marked a bit of a dropoff for the glove-first infielder who had averaged 34 extra-base hits and 52 RBIs with a .644 OPS from 2014 to 2017.
How Escobar will fit into Elias’ rebuilding plan remains to be determined, but he joins a roster that features only one middle infielder with significant major league experience, Jonathan Villar. If Escobar were to make the club out of spring training as a starter, he likely would play shortstop and Villar would play second base.
Full arrival: The Orioles might have suffered through the most discouraging season in the history of the Baltimore franchise, but the players on their new-look, rebuilding roster obviously are eager to start putting it behind them.
The full-squad reporting date is today, but most of the 62 players on the camp roster have been in Sarasota for the past week and all but seven are here already.
The only unexcused exceptions as of Saturday afternoon were infielders Hanser Alberto, Villar and Steve Wilkerson, and outfielder Eric Young Jr. Catcher Jesús Sucre (visa problem) and pitcher Gregory Infante (illness) remain in Venezuela with no known timetable for their arrival. Infielder Alcides Escobar signed Saturday with an invitation to spring training.
Díaz arrives: Cuban outfielder Yusiel Díaz, who was the central prospect in the deal that sent Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers last July, arrived in camp Saturday and spoke briefly with the media through interpreter Ramón Alarcón.
Díaz, 22, had an uneven performance during the month he spent at Double-A Bowie last season, but he’s in the mix for an outfield role and wants to take advantage of it.
“The whole purpose for me being here is to try and make the team from the very beginning, make the roster, get along my teammates, help my team,’’ he said. “That is the whole purpose of my being here.”
Though he went from a team that reached the World Series last year to a team that lost 115 games, he said he’s happy to be with a club that offers so much opportunity to a young player.
Slow-playing Bleier: Reliever Richard Bleier, who had surgery to repair a torn lat muscle, threw his second bullpen session without problem, but the club gave him an extra day off in between just to be safe.
“We’re just going to be careful with him,’’ Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s obviously really important to our club. Everything went really well today. I stood behind him and watched him. The ball’s coming out great. Everything I’ve heard about him is that he’s on the right track. We’re going to be careful with him because of the injury last year.”
No intrasquad games scheduled: During the Buck Showalter era, the Orioles routinely preceded the start of the exhibition season with one or two intrasquad games, but Hyde said none are scheduled during the run up to next Saturday’s Grapefruit League opener.
“Not at this time,’’ Hyde said. “In the next couple days, if we feel like we have too many innings, that’s a possibility. There are so many games, so much time to look, we don’t need to force anything.”
Around the horn: The Orioles held their annual Sarasota Springfest at Ed Smith Stadium on Saturday. The miniature version of FanFest allowed fans to interact with the players and featured an entertaining Q&A session with new center fielder Cedric Mullins.