{"id":403145,"date":"2026-01-10T01:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T01:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/403145\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T01:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T01:09:07","slug":"dodgers-to-sign-andy-ibanez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/403145\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers To Sign Andy Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dodgers have signed infielder Andy Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez<\/a> to a major league deal, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR<\/a>. The Quality Control Sports client\u2019s salary has not yet been reported. The Dodgers have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to make this deal official.<\/p>\n

Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez, 33 in April, was just non-tendered by the Tigers in November. He had spent three years with Detroit in a utility role. He got into 304 games over that span, stepping to the plate 820 times. He produced a combined batting line of .251\/.304\/.392, which translated to a wRC+ of 93. While that offense was a bit below average, Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez provided a lot of defensive versatility. He played all four infield spots as well as the outfield corners.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t enough to keep him in Detroit for 2026. He exhausted his final option year in 2025, meaning he will be out of options going forward. He had qualified for arbitration a year ago as a Super Two player. The Tigers paid him $1.4MM in 2025. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz<\/a> projected him for a raise to $1.8MM this year but Detroit didn\u2019t tender him a contract, sending him to free agency instead.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers have a relatively older infield group. Shortstop Mookie Betts<\/a> is 33 years old and was a full-time outfielder not long ago. 36-year-old Freddie Freeman<\/a> is at first base and 35-year-old Max Muncy<\/a> is at the other corner. Getting a semi rest day in the designated hitter slot isn\u2019t really an option thanks to the presence of Shohei Ohtani<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Second base is a bit more fluid.\u00a0Tommy Edman<\/a>,\u00a0Hyeseong Kim<\/a>,\u00a0Miguel Rojas<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Alex Freeland<\/a> are options for that spot. Rojas will be turning 37 years old soon. Edman isn\u2019t quite as old, turning 31 in May, but is coming off ankle surgery. Kim can play other positions around the diamond. Freeland is a notable prospect for the club and still optionable, so perhaps it makes sense for him to be getting regular playing time in Triple-A if he doesn\u2019t have an everyday job in the majors.<\/p>\n

Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez will give the club another multi-positional guy on the bench who can bounce around as needed, depending on who else is healthy and producing. If he has a good season with the Dodgers, he can be retained beyond 2026 via arbitration. Rojas has already said that he will retire after this year, so that\u2019ll be one less guy in the mix for 2027 and beyond. Muncy is also slated for free agency a season from now but the Dodgers will presumably come up with some plan for third base in the next year, whether that\u2019s bringing back Muncy or some alternative.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dodgers have signed infielder Andy Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez to a major league deal, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[171701,64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-403145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-andy-ibanez","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}