{"id":57274,"date":"2022-12-31T10:19:35","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T15:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=57274"},"modified":"2022-12-31T10:19:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T15:19:35","slug":"diamondbacks-sign-evan-longoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/12\/31\/diamondbacks-sign-evan-longoria\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks Sign Evan Longoria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/category\/diamondbacks\/\" target=\"_self\">Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> made a surprise splash in the free agent market on Friday, reportedly signing veteran third baseman Evan Longoria to a one-year deal. Jon Heyman of MLB.com first broke the news of the acquisition. Signing Longoria gives the D-Backs a much-needed veteran presence to go with their young, talented group.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Evan Longoria to Diamondbacks. 1 year deal.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/1608947692314714113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 30, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The deal is worth $4 million of guaranteed money and a potential $1 million in bonuses, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nickpiecoro\/status\/1608953079466184704\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according to Nick Piecoro<\/a> of the Arizona Republic.<\/p>\n<h2>Longo&#8217;s Career<\/h2>\n<p>Longoria, a three-time All-Star, is no stranger to the NL West. He spent the last five seasons with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/category\/giants\/\" target=\"_self\">San Francisco Giants<\/a>. Seeing Longoria in action against the D-Backs may have influenced their decision to sign him. He owns a .780 career OPS against Arizona, with 12 homers and 42 RBI in 62 games.<\/p>\n<p>The 37-year-old began his career with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/category\/giants\/\" target=\"_self\">Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>, quickly establishing himself as their franchise player. He won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 2008, helping the Rays to a World Series appearance after a woeful first decade. Following two more All-Star seasons, the most memorable moment in Longo&#8217;s career came at the end of 2011.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Must C Clinch: Longoria sends Rays to the playoffs\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2GebYKAlUIQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He hit an extra-inning walk-off homer in game 162 to power the Rays past the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/category\/redsox\/\" target=\"_self\">Boston Red Sox<\/a> for the AL Wild Card. Not only did Tampa Bay trail Boston by nine games at the start of September, they trailed the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/category\/yankees\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Yankees<\/a> 7-0 late in that game. Longoria set many offensive franchise records during his decade in Tampa. He also won three Gold Gloves in his career and hit for the cycle in a 2017 game.<\/p>\n<p>With San Francisco, Longoria did not put up the type of offensive numbers he did in Tampa. This was partly due to his long-term injuries over the last two seasons. However, he has remained a fairly steady hitter and an outstanding defender. For his career, Longo is a .265 hitter with 331 homers, 1,131 RBI, 1,883 hits, 992 runs scored, and an OPS of .806.<\/p>\n<h2>D-Backs Sign Evan Longoria<\/h2>\n<p>By signing Evan Longoria, the D-Backs are looking to add a vital ingredient for any team contending for the postseason: steady veteran leadership. The move should restore some morale to a clubhouse that likely needs it. The team recently traded Daulton Varsho, a dynamic young player who broke out last year with Arizona. Although they got a solid return, trading the up-and-comer was seen as a surprise.<\/p>\n<p>Longoria should see plenty of action at the hot corner thanks to his elite defense. However, he may end up as the DH a decent amount. He will add yet more talent to a loaded D-Backs infield, joining the likes of Christian Walker, Ketel Marte, and Nick Ahmed. With such a promising group in place, Arizona should be that much closer to contending in the NL West.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"eMLoQ09_SGxLgTWqmc0uVw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1430159485\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'eMLoQ09_SGxLgTWqmc0uVw',sig:'HfNxEYvhArUwRPzaj_O0yJ65mmT5ibY9ptFDDyUT9Xs=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1430159485',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Players mentioned:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/longoev01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2022-12-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evan Longoria<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/varshda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2022-12-31_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daulton Varsho<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walkech02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2022-12-31_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christian Walker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/marteke01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2022-12-31_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ketel Marte<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/ahmedni01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2022-12-31_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Ahmed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Arizona Diamondbacks made a surprise splash in the free agent market on Friday, reportedly signing veteran third baseman Evan Longoria to a one-year deal. Jon Heyman of MLB.com first broke the news of the acquisition. Signing Longoria gives the D-Backs a much-needed veteran presence to go with their young, talented group. Evan Longoria to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3931,"featured_media":57276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"1672444800","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"Evan Longoria signing with the Diamondbacks","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"300","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2,1071,35],"tags":[326,2517,3315,670,702,2262,94,91,566],"class_list":["post-57274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diamondbacks","category-featured","category-mlb","category-news","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-christian-walker","tag-daulton-varsho","tag-evan-longoria","tag-ketel-marte","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-nl-west","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"modified_by":"Troy Brock","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3931"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}