White Sox finalize 1-year, $4M deal with Navarro

The Chicago White Sox added depth behind the plate Friday, finalizing a one-year, $4-million deal with free-agent catcher Dioner Navarro.

Navarro's deal comes on the heels of a reshuffling at catcher by the White Sox, who signed Alex Avila last week and chose not to offer Tyler Flowers a contract ahead of Wednesday's non-tender deadline.

"We saw an opportunity to improve the club from an offensive standpoint and at this point while we're not able to get into specifics, know that this move was done as part of a plan," White Sox general manager Rick Hahn told Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times after non-tendering Flowers. "We're not in a position to announce what the next move is going to be, but we've talked repeatedly this offseason that we need to improve our run-scoring ability."

Hampered in part by a hamstring injury that limited him to 54 games, Navarro played sparingly after losing his starting job to new Toronto Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin last season, slashing .246/.307/.374 with five homers over 191 plate appearances.

Former Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos said several times throughout the season that he was open to trading Navarro to a team where he would start. He hit 12 homers and posted a .712 OPS in 2014, the first season of a two-year, $8-million deal with the Blue Jays.

Navarro, 31, is expected to form the right side of a catching platoon with Avila next season in Chicago. The switch-hitting Navarro is especially tough on lefties, owning a .775 career OPS as a right-handed hitter versus southpaws.