Miguel Tejada to sign with Miami Marlins
By Aaron Somers
Miguel Tejada reportedly has a deal in place to join the Miami Marlins, pending the results of a physical. Juan C. Rodriguez of the Sun Sentinel reports that it would be a minor league contract.
The opportunity represents one final chance in all likelihood for Tejada. The 2012 season had hardly gone as planned after he signed a one year deal with the Baltimore Orioles. He’d appear in just 36 games with the team’s Triple-A affiliate before stepping away from the game, leaving many to believe that his career was over. Tejada returned last spring, agreeing to a one year deal with the Kansas City Royals. Splitting the bulk of his time between second and third base, Tejada batted .288/.317/.378 in 167 PA before his season was cut short early following a suspension stemming from his use of Adderall.
He’d reach free agency again this offseason, but failed to attract any significant interest on the open market. Tejada insisted that he still planned to play, but there didn’t appear to be any opportunities for him to do so until now.
Miami entered play on Friday at 21-21, third place in the NL East. The team has largely surprised in the early part of the season, partly in thanks to some of the veteran acquisitions that were made during the winter months. Production off the bench, however, has been minimal and Tejada could potentially be an option to solve that if he’s able to hit anywhere close to how he did a season ago. In all likelihood he’d be looking at at least one to two weeks of playing time in the minor leagues before he’ll be ready to join the Marlins active roster.
A career .285/.336/.456 hitter over 16 seasons, Tejada hit 307 home runs and 468 doubles during his time with the Oakland Athletics, Orioles, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, and Royals. The five time All Star’s best season came back in 2002, when he won the AL MVP Award after hitting .308/.354/.508 with 34 HR and 131 RBI in the second of six consecutive seasons that he didn’t miss a single game.