Who is Omir Santos?

When the Rockies signed veteran catcher Ramon Hernandez this offseason, the idea was that he would provide leadership and depth at the position as backstop-of-the-future Wilin Rosario readied himself for the everyday job. Of course, the risk was that Hernandez might get injured and find himself mentoring from the bench, which is exactly what’s happened.

While Rosario and Wil Nieves have done a fine job sharing the starting catching gig, it can’t hurt to have another guy chart for that position. In light of that, the Rockies have signed Omir Santos, recently released by the Detroit Tigers. Santos is not a long-term solution; he’s one of those journeyman mostly minor league players, similar to Nieves. In 121 MLB games over 12 seasons, he’s hit at a .249 clip and hit only 7 home runs. He’s also pretty strikeout-prone: in one season with the Double-A Trenton Thunder, he struck out 75 times in 401 at-bats.

So what does he bring to the Rockies? Plenty of experience behind the plate, and another option at catcher while Hernandez continues to rehabilitate. And who knows? The way things are going this season, maybe he’ll turn out to be the offensive hero he never knew he had inside him.