By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | March 19, 2016, 10:20 am CT
By Paul Hadsall / CC Image / No changes made
Updated at 10:57 am CT with additional details:
Looking to fortify their depth at the position following a thumb injury to All-Star Jhonny Peralta, the Cardinals have agreed to a one-year major league deal with former Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada, the team announced Saturday morning.
Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed by the club, although MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch, who first reported an agreement between the two sides was close, writes that the deal is worth $1.5 million and does not include performance or appearance incentives.
Tejada, who will take the final open spot on the Cardinals 40-man roster, has spent his entire career with the Mets, appearing in nearly 600 games over six seasons. The 26-year-old agreed to a $3 million contract with New York this past offseason, but the club, confident with their middle infield depth, waived their second-longest tenured player to save the majority of that money.
Signed as an amateur free agent in 2006, the Panama native has primarily handled shortstop in his big-league career (431 games), but also has experience at second (118 games) and third base (19 games) as well, providing a solid, but not spectacular, glove at each position.
With the bat, Tejada has shown the ability to reach base at a decent clip but lacks significant power. The infielder is a .255/.330/.325 hitter with ten major league home runs, and hit .261 with three homers in 116 games in 2015.
Tejada will give the redbirds another option at the shortstop position while Peralta – who is not expected back until at least June – recovers from thumb surgery. The club had been evaluating prospect Aledmys Diaz, utilityman Greg Garcia, and offseason trade acquisition Jedd Gyorko at shortstop since his injury.
According to Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mike Matheny met with both Gyorko and Diaz to discuss the addition of Tejada, with the manager saying Tejada and Gyorko will be getting starts at shortstop. Matheny added that he wants to get “a long look” at Tejada at shortstop, with those starts clearly coming at the expense of Diaz.
“Bring him in and give him some opportunity and see how it fits,” the manager told the Post-Dispatch of the Tejada signing. “We’re going to continue to give Jedd opportunities as well. (Diaz) will get some work today. We’ll evaluate things later.”
Tejada, who was hitting .278 with a home run and five RBI this spring before his release, will wear number 19 for the Cardinals and could receive a Spring Training start as soon as Sunday.
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