The San francisco giants the infielder will be signed, Alex Blandino, to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training. Blandino was eliminated from the 40-man roster of the Cincinnati Reds at the end of the season, which made him eligible to sign a juvenile contract during the lockout.
Blandino has appeared in three of the last four seasons with Cincinnati, adding 279 cumulative plate appearances. He’s a .226 / .339 / .291 hitter with a pair of home runs in that time. Giants GM Farhan Zaidi has shown that he is committed to bringing in players with local ties, so this makes perfect sense:
The right-hander has been exceptionally patient at the plate, swinging only 34% of the pitches he’s seen. That’s about 13 points less than the league average, a plan of attack that often sees him working on deep counts.
It’s no wonder he’s walked a hefty 11.1% of his career plate appearances, but that patience has caused some pretty significant strikeout problems as well.
Despite possessing good bat-to-ball skills, Blandino has been struck out a very high 29.7% of his trips to the plate due to the frequency with which he takes pitches both in and out of the strike zone.
Blandino doesn’t bring much power to the table, but he has a .235 / .374 / .369 line in parts of four Triple-A seasons. He’s also capable of bouncing throughout the infield, having started games on all four points on the ground during his time with the Reds. The former first-round pick also made cameos in the corner outfield and occasionally as a relief during blowouts.
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Blandino is a native of Santa Clara County, California who played his college ball at Stanford. The 29-year-old, 1.83-meter tall will look to return to the Bay Area playing for the Giants’ active roster next spring.
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