Giants sign shortstop Joaquin Arias to minor league deal

The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with shortstop Joaquin Arias, according to a tweet by Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus.

Arias, 27, was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Yankees in the 2001 amateur draft.

He was the “player to be named later” when the Yanks traded him and Alfonso Soriano to Texas for Alex Rodriguez in 2004. Rangers fans remember him fondly as the player not named Robinson Cano. (Texas had their choice of either Arias, or a-then-unknown Cano, and they took Arias. As Rick Perry would say, “oops.”)

Arias spent last season in the Kansas City Royals’ organization, where he batted .232/.272/.353 with 3 HR and 25 RBI in 259 plate appearances at Triple-A Omaha. He has fared a bit better in the winter league, where he’s batting .286/.328/.411 (0.809 OPS).

In 113 career games at the Major League level, Arias has a .276/.314/.362 (0.676 OPS) slash line. He’s basically a singles hitter with no speed.

It is unclear at this writing whether Arias will be invited to spring training or not, but I’m guessing he will just to give Brandon Crawford some competition in camp. Although — according to this guy and this guy — Crawford shouldn’t have anything to worry about.