Blue Jays sign Casey Kotchman, David Adams, and Jiovanni Mier to minor league deals

The Blue Jays announced three signings on Monday morning, revealing that they have inked infielder Jiovanni Mier, second baseman David Adams, and veteran  first baseman Casey Kotchman to minor league contracts, all coming with an invitation to big league spring training.

#BlueJays sign 1B Casey Kotchman, SS Jiovanni Mier, 2B David Adams to minor league deals with invites to Spring Training

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) November 23, 2015

Kotchman is probably the only one most people would recognize on that list. He was the Angels' first-round pick in 2001, chosen two spots ahead of Gabe Gross (remember Gabe Gross?). The 32-year-old (who will be 33 by Opening Day) is a left-handed first baseman who was a major league starter from 2007 to 2012; however other than six games with the Marlins in 2013 he has not played in the big leagues since his last year as Cleveland's starting first baseman, where he hit .229/.280/.333 over 500 PA. The year before that he slashed .306/.378/.422, good for a 127 wRC+, thanks to the Rays' devil magic. In 2015 he was at triple-A Omaha for the Royals and hit .a respectable but not great 290/.374/.426 but walked 39 times in 361 PA, good for a 10.8 BB%.

Adams, listed as a second baseman, has also logged conseiderable time at third base in his minor league career. The 28-year-old right hander was the Yankees' third-round pick in 2008 and spent six seasons in their organization before hopping to the Orioles and then the Marlins through the waiver wire. He spent 43 games and had 152 plate appearances in the major leagues back in 2013, Mendoza-ing at .193/.252/.286. He spent the bulk of 2015 with double-A Jacksonville, hitting .294/.399/.391, good for a 131 wRC+ in the Southern League. Like Kotchman, Adams recorded a pretty good walk rate last season at 14.2%.

Finally, Mier joins the Blue Jays as his first organization outside of the Astros, who drafted him in the first round in 2009, one spot behind Chad Jenkins (remember Chad Jenkins?) and four ahead of a centre fielder named Mike Trout. Mier, 25-years-old and hailing from California, has not made it to the big leagues but did spend 41 games in triple-A in 2014 before being returned to double-A where he spent all of 2015. He hit .258/.350/.372 as the starting shortstop for the Texas League Corpus Christi Hooks, recording a 11.5% walk rate along with a 17.4% strikeout rate, which in all fairness is much below his career average.

Kotchman and Adams are out of options, but Mier has never been added to the 40-man roster so he has not spent any option years.

It's still early (as Mike Wilner would say) in the offseason so these are just the type of minor moves every team makes in the offseason to take fliers on guys and to fill up their minor league rosters.