The Nationals have re-signed veteran outfielder Alejandro De Aza to a minor league pact, Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post tweets. De Aza did not receive an invite to Major League camp, though he’ll be with the club for today’s game at least, Castillo adds. De Aza is a client of Magnus Sports.
The 33-year-old De Aza spent the entire 2017 season in the Nationals organization and finished out the year with the big league club. He made just 70 plate appearances and batted .194/.224/.323 in his brief big league stint with the Nats, but he posted a much stronger .280/.368/.403 slash in 212 Triple-A plate appearances.
Last year’s 28 Major League games were the fewest De Aza had logged in a season since appearing in just 19 contests with the White Sox back in 2010. De Aza averaged 134 games and 484 PAs per season from 2012-16 between the ChiSox, Orioles, Red Sox, Giants and Mets, hitting a combined .258/.326/.395 along the way. He has experience at all three outfield positions and seems likely to head to Triple-A as a depth option to open the season.
man, all that popped up on my phone was “nationals agree to deal”. I was all excited for Lucroy. Oh well.
DeAza is a natural born depth piece. Nice hedge against multiple OF injuries who can hold down the position for several weeks.