Rangers ink Chirinos to 1-year extension

The Texas Rangers announced Tuesday they've signed catcher Robinson Chirinos to a one-year contract extension that will keep him in Arlington through the 2018 season and includes a club option in 2019.

Chirinos will earn $2.25 million in 2018, while the 2019 option is worth $2.375 million and includes escalator clauses based on at-bats, according to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Chirinos, who's about to begin his fifth season in Texas, was the team's starting catcher until it acquired Jonathan Lucroy last July. The 32-year-old will continue to serve as Lucroy's backup in 2017.

"We're in a pretty good situation where we have a front-line catcher backing up a front-line catcher," manager Jeff Banister told Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

Last season, Chirinos appeared in 57 games for the Rangers and hit .224/.314/.483 with nine homers, despite missing most of the season's first two months with a broken arm. He was the Rangers' primary catcher in 2015, appearing in 78 games and hitting 10 home runs to help them to an AL West title.

In 261 career games with the Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays, Chirinos owns a career slash line of .230/.303/.423 with 33 home runs, 101 RBIs, and 196 strikeouts.

Earlier this winter the Venezuelan avoided arbitration with the Rangers by agreeing to a $1.95-million contract for 2017.