San Diego Padres sign Brian Dozier to a minor league contract

The San Diego Padres signed second baseman Brian Dozier of Fulton, Mississippi to a minor league contract according to ESPN on Monday. If Dozier is able to crack the Padres lineup in 2020, San Diego will become his fourth Major League Baseball team. He has previously played for the Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals.

Dozier won a World Series with the Nationals in 2019. Even though he only had six postseason at bats, and was unable to register a hit, Dozier is credited for his role in notifying his Nationals teammates of the Houston Astros possibly using technology to steal signs. According to Ryan Gados of FOX News, Dozier’s former teammates with the Dodgers reached out to Dozier to inform him of their suspicions. As a result, Houston could not win a game at home in the 2019 World Series.

Dozier was with the Dodgers in 2018. That was a year after the Dodgers reached the 2017 World Series and lost to the Astros in seven games.

In 2019 with the Nationals, Dozier batted .238 with 20 home runs and 50 runs batted in during 482 plate appearances. In 135 games, he had 416 at bats, scored 54 runs, had 99 hits, 20 doubles, three stolen bases, 61 walks, 179 total bases and one sacrifice fly. Dozier also had an on base percentage of .340 and a slugging percentage of .430.

If Dozier cracks the Padres lineup, he is expected to backup second baseman Jurickson Profar in 2020. Profar had a poor average of .218 in 2019, but showed some decent power as he smacked 20 home runs.

The Padres finished last in the National League West in 2019 with a record of 70 wins and 92 losses. They were 36 games back of the first place Los Angeles Dodgers.