Dodgers sign veteran outfielder Kevin Pillar to minor league contract

Often, late March is when main league groups start trimming down their spring coaching rosters.

On Tuesday, the Dodgers as a substitute added one other veteran to an already crowded clubhouse.

Of their continued efforts to construct depth forward of the delayed and condensed 2022 season, the crew introduced it signed outfielder Kevin Pillar to a minor league contract with an invite to massive league camp. If Pillar makes the large league roster, he’ll reportedly earn $2.5 million this season.

Pillar, 33, is a nine-year veteran who has bounced round in recent times, enjoying with 5 totally different golf equipment over the previous three seasons. In 124 video games with the New York Mets final season, he suffered certainly one of his worst campaigns, batting .231 with 15 house runs, 47 RBIs and a .692 on-base-plus-slugging share.

Following the season, Pillar declined a $2.9-million participant possibility with the Mets, opting as a substitute to turn out to be a free agent for the third straight offseason. And after ready this winter for his subsequent alternative, he noticed the Dodgers as a spot to probably revitalize his profession.

“I felt prefer it was in my finest curiosity for the longevity of my profession to perhaps take a step again, to take a few steps ahead,” Pillar mentioned standing in entrance of his new locker Tuesday. “This group has completed a extremely, actually good job of taking gamers that perhaps have underperformed or underachieved, or perhaps some guys that had been pretty unknown and turned them into some actually good baseball gamers.

“For me, I wish to go away no stone unturned. I nonetheless consider that I could be a significantly better baseball participant than I’m proper now. And that is most likely the very best place for me to attempt to determine that out. . . . I’m betting on myself to have the ability to play this sport at a excessive degree for a pair extra years. Even when meaning I bought to take a step again this yr.”

A West Hills native and Cal State Dominguez Hills product who grew up a Dodgers fan, Pillar was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays within the thirty second spherical in 2011 earlier than making his massive league debut two years later.

He spent the following six seasons with the Blue Jays earlier than being traded days into the 2019 marketing campaign to the San Francisco Giants, happening to have certainly one of his finest seasons by batting .264 with 21 house runs and 87 RBIs.

Pillar had stable numbers once more the following yr, batting a mixed .288 with a .798 OPS with the Boston Purple Sox and Colorado Rockies (who acquired him on the commerce deadline). However he struggled in 2021 after inking a one-year, $5-million take care of the Mets.

With the Dodgers, Pillar is certainly one of seven veteran bats with a number of seasons of MLB expertise — a degree of emphasis for the crew after accidents and inconsistency ravaged their bench a season in the past.

Pillar hopes it may be a mutually helpful match, too, one he believes may also help rebuild his worth and prolong his profession.

“Hopefully I can play a pair extra years versus simply surviving one other yr,” he mentioned. “I hope to go on the market and thrive and switch this chance, being very needed this time subsequent yr.”