Cleveland Indians to sign outfielder Jeff Francoeur

It's Cleveland's turn to host one of the most divisive players in baseball!

By Jason Lukehart@JasonLukehart Jan 6, 2014, 7:07pm EST

The Indians are close to signing outfielder Jeff Francoeur to a minor-league deal. Terms of not yet been disclosed, so we don't yet know if there are any clauses that give him the option of opting out if he's not on the roster by a certain dates, a common detail in minor-league deals for players with fairly recent success.

Francoeur, 29 (turning 30 on Wednesday, so wish him a good one!), has been a somewhat effective player at various points in his career, and as recently as 2011, but there's a buzz that has followed him to each of the five teams he's already played for in his career (Braves, Mets, Rangers, Royals, Giants), a sense that's he been a great player, which has never been true.

Here's a look at Francoeur's numbers:

Year	Age	Tm	G	PA	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
2005	21	ATL	70	274	77	20	14	45	11	58	.300	.336	.549	.884	126
2006	22	ATL	*162*	686	169	24	29	103	23	132	.260	.293	.449	.742	87
2007	23	ATL	*162*	696	188	40	19	105	42	129	.293	.338	.444	.782	102
2008	24	ATL	155	653	143	33	11	71	39	111	.239	.294	.359	.653	72
2009	25	TOT	157	632	166	32	15	76	23	92	.280	.309	.423	.732	93
2010	26	TOT	139	503	113	18	13	65	30	81	.249	.300	.383	.683	85
2011	27	KCR	153	656	171	47	20	87	37	123	.285	.329	.476	.805	119
2012	28	KCR	148	603	132	26	16	49	34	119	.235	.287	.378	.665	80
2013	29	TOT	81	256	50	10	3	17	9	61	.204	.238	.298	.536	48
9 Yrs			1227	4959	1209	250	140	618	248	906	.263	.306	.419	.725	91

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com

Until the last couple years, Francoeur had decent pop, and he has a very strong arm in right field, but the rest of his defense is suspect, and he's never known how to draw a walk, leading to low on-base percentages, even in his good years. You can see from looking at his OPS+ figures, he's rarely been an above average contributor on offense, and was one of the worst hitters in MLB in 2013.

The Indians are pretty well set in the outfield, with David Murphy and Ryan Raburn expected to platoon in right, and Michael Bourn and Michael Brantley set in center and left. The last position-player spot on the roster is probably up for grabs, with Jason Giambi and a third catcher among those in the mix for it. Francoeur will join that competition at Spring Training, and maybe he gets back to his 2011 production and this turns out to be a good signing. More likely he either gets released when some sort of contractual clause isn't triggered, or he hits a couple home runs while striking out a ton.

If the Tribe was going to sign an outfielder who probably won't turn out to help, I'd have preferred they bring Grady Sizemore back. You know, for old time's sake. Alas...

As a final note, I will mention that at every stop of his career, Francoeur has been lauded as a fine person, well-liked by media members and teammates, and popular with fans. There are worse things in the world than signing a good guy to a risk-free deal and hoping lightning strikes.