OLIVO RE-UPS FOR THIRD SUMMER IN TIJUANA

Longtime major league catcher Miguel Olivo has signed on for another Mexican League season with the Tijuana Toros in 2016. Olivo hit .281 with 14 homers and 56 RBI’s for Tijuana last summer. Mexican teams have historically been unafraid to let veterans continue to play in the field, and the Toros put Olivo behind the plate in 75 of his 89 games. He responded with a .995 fielding average over 555 chances.  The 37-year-old Dominican batted .309 with 9 homers for TJ in 2014 after being released by the Dodgers from their AAA affiliate in Albuquerque.

Olivo made his pro debut with the Athletics Arizona Rookie League squad in 1998 and turned in a .311 average.  He broke into the majors with the Chicago White Sox in 1993, hitting .211 in a six-game cup of coffee.  Over the course of his 13-year MLB career in which he changed teams eight times, Olivo hit just .240 but displayed extra-base power with 177 doubles and 145 homers among his 905 lifetime hits.  He belted 12 or more roundtrippers eight times between 2004 and 2012.  

A suspect fielder in MLB, where Olivo led his league in passed balls four times and errors another three, but has not been regarded as a liability with a glove in Tijuana under skipper Eddy Diaz, who platooned him with veteran receiver Adan Munoz during the Toros’ 54-53 regular season and two rounds of playoff action.  Olivo has been a part-timer for Jalisco this winter, batting .211 with 1 homer in 11 games for the Charros and skipper Juan Navarrete, a former Expos farmhand and Salon de la Fama member.