Indians sign Flaherty, Navarro to minor league deals

The Cleveland Indians have signed Ryan Flaherty and Dioner Navarro to minor league deals with invites to Spring Training.

It is that time of year, when the Cleveland Indians sign players to minor league contracts with invites to Spring Training. Cleveland did just that with the signings of Ryan Flaherty and Dioner Navarro Thursday.

Ryan Flaherty

Ryan Flaherty spent six season in Baltimore before signing with Atlanta last season. Flaherty possesses the ability to play first, second and third base. While his bat is nothing special, he possesses the ability to play multiple positions in the infield. This versatility is obviously what the Indians were interested in.

Flaherty has a career slash line of .216/.286/.347 with a .633 OPS. These numbers are hardly eye-popping. Flaherty’s career-high in home runs is 10, which was achieved in 2013. The bat of Flaherty is not what attracts teams in his services.

Dioner Navarro

Catcher Dioner Navarro has not appeared in a Major League game since 2016. Navarro’s signing may be a bit of a precautionary measure in case an injury occurs to either Roberto Perez or Kevin Plawecki. Even then, Navarro’s presence on the roster is most likely as a replacement catcher during Spring Training games.

Navarro will be 35 years old by the time Spring Training starts and is actually a more productive hitter over the course of his career than Perez and Plawecki. Although Cleveland has a better offensive option in AAA with Eric Haase. If the Indians are looking for offense from the catcher position Haase would make more sense than Navarro at this point in time.

Indians could just be looking for a veteran presence

There is something to be said about having a veteran presence on the bench. They provide a voice that younger players can rally around and can be leaders in the clubhouse. Ryan Flaherty probably has a better chance of making the team out of Spring Training over Dioner Navarro. Granted stranger things have happened, but looking at overall roster construction and the versatility of Flaherty, the Indians could be looking towards him as a veteran option on the bench.