Catcher Omir Santos signs minor league deal with Tribe

Omir Santos

February 5, 2013

Today the Cleveland Indians announced that they have signed free agent catcher Omir Santos to a minor league contract with a non-roster invitation to Major League spring training camp.

Santos, 31, split 2012 between the Detroit Tigers and Colorado Rockies organizations, hitting a combined .310 (63-203) with 16 doubles, 2 home runs and 30 RBI in 61 games between Triple-A Toledo and Triple-A Colorado Springs. He also appeared in three games for the Tigers between May 30-June 5 before latching on with Colorado.
Since 2008, Santos has appeared in 121 Major League games with the New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles and Detroit and was named to the TOPPS Rookie All-Star team in 2009 with the Mets after he hit .260 (73-281) with 14 2B, 7 HR and 40 RBI in a career-high 96 games.

Santos will help the Indians this spring as they need several catching options to work with over 30 pitchers that will be in Major League camp. He will also help fill in for Carlos Santana who will leave the team for two to three weeks in March to participate in the World Baseball Classic.

Santos has little chance to make the Indians' opening day roster, but could now be the favorite to be the backup catcher at Triple-A Columbus. In 12 career minor league seasons covering 803 games he owns a .257 average with 37 homers, 316 RBI and .648 OPS.

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User Comments

Tony

February 5, 2013 - 1:45 PM EST

Perez is actually a ML spring invite so will be working with Indians pitchers at least most of camp. May find himself back at Double-A depending on if Gomes makes the big league roster. Problem is the AAA roster has to have guys that either have prior ML experience or can be called upon as ML depth options, and a lot of the guys that get to AA just are not viewed as ML options. It's no different for a lot of other teams. It is an interesting process and seems unfair, strange....but how it works.

Matthew

February 5, 2013 - 1:13 PM EST

I don't think this is intended to be much more than an extra body for spring training. There simply aren't enough people to catch all the pitchers we're going to have in ST. I don't see this guy holding anyone back in our minor league system.

jake

February 5, 2013 - 1:04 PM EST

Goodbye luke carlin......hello omir santos. Lol. My question is why add him when roberto perez is a defensive specailist catcher who just played all year in aa. Perez is not a guy the indians see as a player who has to play everyday. Why not give perez the spring training invite and let him be the backup to yan gomes" im assuming he wont make the team out of slring training and will start in aaa ". I wish they would just use the guys they have since they are fimilar with the pitchers we have at that level and will know how to get the best out of the pitching we have at the level they are at since they know the pitchers that well. I know this is a minor to who even cares kind of siging but i like letting your own system earn their way to the top instead of cutting them out once they get to aa. The indians seem to do that alot with guys like jordan brown steven wright and so on. Kinda sucks because we ollow these marginal prospects, cheer for them to make it to the big leagues and the indians kinda stack the odds against them.

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Catcher Omir Santos signs minor league deal with Tribe

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