Indians Make Rajai Davis Signing Offical; DFA Chris Johnson

CLEVELAND – The Indians today officially announced the signing of free agent outfielder Rajai Davis to a deal for the upcoming season.

The one-year deal was reported to be for $5.25M plus incentives according to reports on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old played with the Tigers last season, hitting .258 (88-341) with 16 doubles, 11 triples, 8 home runs and 30 RBI in 112 games (.306/.440/.746).

He finished tied for third in the American League in triples (career-high 11) and equaled his career-best with 8 home runs. He was named Tigers Player of the Month for September, hitting .344 (21-61) with 10 runs, 1 2B, 3 3B, 4 HR & 12 RBI in 18 games. The versatile outfielder appeared in 46 games in center field (537 for career), 39 games (370 career) in left field and 10 games in right field for the A.L. Central Detroit Tigers.

He stole 18 bases on the year, including 3 against the Indians on April 25th at Progressive Field.

In his 10 seasons he has a career batting average of .269 (870-3233) with 176 2B, 38 3B, 43 home runs and 305 RBI in 1067 games since debuting with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2006, spending the last eight seasons in the American League.

His 322 career stolen bases are 7th among active Major League players, placing in the top ten in the American League in steals six times during his career. The right-handed hitting outfielder owns a career average of .296 (323-1090) against left-handed pitching with 71 2B, 17 3B and 20 home runs (.351/.448/.798).

To make room on the 40-man roster for Davis the Indians designated infielder Chris Johnson, who the team acquired last season in the deal with the Braves to unload Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn.

Johnson hit .289 in 93 at-bats with the Indians last season, but with Mike Napoli coming aboard as well, there just wasn’t room for Johnson on the roster.

“We didn’t get there easily, but we felt as we looked at all of our alternatives, that this was the direction we needed to go,”
Indians President Chris Antonetti said.

“We felt some of the other decisions would have been not as beneficial for our team had we taken someone else off the roster.”