Cleveland Indians add intriguing bullpen option in Alexi Ogando

The Cleveland Indians have added an intriguing bullpen option, signing former star Alexi Ogando to a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training.

In addition to signing outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. to a minor league deal, the Cleveland Indians have also announced they have come to an agreement with former big league pitcher Alexi Ogando on a minor league deal.

Like with Upton, Ogando is also getting an invite to Spring Training.

Ogando is probably most famous for his time in Texas when he worked out of the bullpen and rotation for the Rangers. The 34-year-old spent 2017 in Korea where he had a solid season, which prompted him to return to America. He worked as a starter in the Korean Baseball League (KBO), making 19 starts and throwing 110 innings with a reasonable 4.34 ERA.

In his big league career, which began back in 2010, he’s appeared in 283 games making 48 starts and posting a 3.47 ERA and 4.03 FIP. He most likely is being brought in to work as a reliever as he hasn’t made a big league start since 2013. He did make 64 appearances and worked 65 innings as recently as 2015 out of the bullpen. However, injuries have dogged him much of his career.

Ogando will enter the mix to try to maybe help replace Bryan Shaw in 2018. He’s got the stamina when healthy to help out but it remains to be seen if he’s got anything left in the tank. But for the Indians, it’s a no-risk signing that could pay off.

The Tribe has done a great job at finding useful non-roster bullpen arms the last few years. They got Scott Atchison a few years ago, Dan Otero in 2016 and we saw Tyler Olson break out this past summer.

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The Indians also did well bringing Scott Kazmir back from the dead in 2013 after being hurt and out of baseball. Ogando probably doesn’t do what Kazmir did but could eat some innings out of the bullpen.