Sign Doug Mientkiewicz to Minor Contract

The National League West Division Champion Los Angeles Dodgers signed Doug Mientkiewicz to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training. General Manager Ned Colletti made the announcement.

    Mientkiewicz leads all active first basemen with a .996 career fielding percentage in 955 games, slightly ahead of Mark Teixeira and Todd Helton.   

  Mientkiewicz last year with the Pittsburgh Pirates assumed a utility role, starting 30 games at first base in addition to 30 games at third and six in right field. Mientkiewicz won a Rawlings Gold Glove for American League first basemen in 2001 with Minnesota.   

The left-handed hitter has a career .271 average over 11 Major League seasons with Minnesota (1998-2004), Boston (2004), New York Mets (2005), Kansas City (2006), New York Yankees (2007), and Pittsburgh.  He batted .277 with two homers and 30 RBI in 125 games with the Pirates in 2008, including a .326 mark (14-for-43) as a pinch hitter to rank seventh in the Majors.   

The Florida State University product is a veteran of four postseasons, including one World Series with the Red Sox in 2004. He made the final putout against St. Louis in Game 4 of the Fall Classic to secure the franchise’s first title in 87 years, receiving Keith Foulke’s underhand toss at first base.    

Mientkiewicz had come to the Red Sox in a key four-team deal with the Cubs, Expos, and Twins moments before the July 31 trade deadline.  

Mientkiewicz, who was a fifth-round selection of the Twins in the 1995 First-Year Player Draft, played for Tommy Lasorda and the Gold Medal-winning Team USA squad at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.