Rockies Sign Mark Reynolds

5:20pm: The deal comes with a $1MM base salary and another $1MM worth of incentives, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets.

4:53pm: The Rockies and first baseman Mark Reynolds are in agreement on a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, Reynolds himself tells Thomas Harding of MLB.com (Twitter link). The Ballengee Group client previously spent the 2016-17 seasons with the Rox.

Reynolds, 35, has turned in three straight solid efforts at the plate but has not found much in the way of rewards in free agency as teams continue to put less emphasis on bat-first players with limited defensive value. Most recently, he turned in a .248/.328/.476 line with 13 home runs and eight doubles over the life of 235 players in a reserve role with the Nationals in 2018. Overall, he’s batted .269/.349/.472 with 57 home runs in 1269 PAs dating back to 2016.

While he’ll obviously have to earn his way onto the roster, Reynolds will head to camp as a potential right-handed bat off a bench that currently is lacking in terms of established big league pop. Players like Raimel Tapia, Noel Cuevas, Ryan McMahon, Pat Valaika and Mike Tauchman are all on the 40-man roster and will be in the mix for bench gigs.

At least one of Tapia, Cuevas or Tauchman seems likely to make the club as an outfield reserve option behind Charlie Blackmon, David Dahl and Ian Desmond. Either McMahon or Valaika could well factor into the mix at multiple infield spots (assuming Garrett Hampson claims the second base job to begin the season), and the Rox will of course need to roster a backup to catcher Chris Iannetta (either Tony Wolters or the out-of-options Tom Murphy). Reynolds doesn’t offer much in the way of defensive versatility but has more pop than the rest of the bunch and is a known commodity to organizational decision-makers following his previous two-year run in Denver, so it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see him win a spot on the Opening Day roster.