Seattle inks veteran INF Donovan Solano to 1-year deal worth $3.5 million guaranteed

The Mariners have their first major league free agent signing of the winter.

The Seattle Mariners announced Monday that they have signed veteran infielder Donovan Solano to a one year contract. In a corresponding move, they’ve designated LHP Austin Kitchen for assignment, whom they’d claimed on waivers earlier this winter from the Miami Marlins.

Per reports from Robert Murray of FanSided, the deal is worth $3.5 million guaranteed, with incentives that could raise it an additional $1 million. The 37 year old Colombian has the third most MLB hits in his nation’s history, and is fourth among Colombians in WAR per Baseball Reference, behind only Édgar Rentería, Orlando Cabrera, and Gio Urshela.

Though he has played all over the diamond, Solano has 100+ big league appearances at 2B, 1B, and 3B, spending the plurality of his time at third in 2024 with the San Diego Padres. It’s likeliest he’ll play a similar role in 2025 in Seattle, covering both 3B and 2B in particular. His career line offensively of .279/.335/.381 and a 99 wRC+ is appropriately indicative of what he’s long brought to the table: cromulent offense with minimal power, paired with capable but athletically limited glovework.

However, Solano’s career can rightly be grouped into two sections: pre-Giants, and after. Despite never having been traded, Solano has played for six big league clubs (Marlins, Yankees, Giants, Reds, Twins, and Padres), as well as his many years in the minors with the Cardinals who originally signed him out of Barranquilla, Colombia in 2005, and a 2018 minor league stint with the Dodgers. After spending 2017 and 2018 in the minors exclusively, the 5’8, 210 lbs infielder who’d debuted at age 24 back in 2012 with Miami found his stride at last in San Francisco in 2019. From that season forward, through some adjustments, Solano has been a solid big leaguer, even winning a Silver Slugger award in the shortened 2020 season. From 2019-2024 he’s posted a .294/.353/.413 line with a 112 wRC+ and 6.3 fWAR in 546 games and 1838 plate appearances.

His schtick is reasonably straightforward – not striking out too much while walking occasionally, spraying singles in a Ty France-esque capacity despite more tepid foot speed. Though he hits right-handed, Solano has not displayed meaningful splits across the 3000+ plate appearances he’s taken in his career. Seattle may deploy him with a platoon mindset in some situations should they not make further adjustments to their roster, such as to spell Luke Raley at 1B, but the likely outcome is that Solano takes on a primary role between third and second, given the club’s willingness to invest any money at all in him.