{"id":544238,"date":"2026-01-29T16:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/544238\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T16:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:00:20","slug":"former-tigers-infielder-gets-another-opportunity-with-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/544238\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Tigers infielder gets another opportunity with Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT — Former Detroit Tigers infielder Sergio Alc\u00e1ntara has signed a minor-league deal with the Washington Nationals<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Alc\u00e1ntara, 29, was acquired by the Tigers from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2017 trade for J.D. Martinez<\/a>. Although he might be best remembered for hitting a home run in his first at-bat as a big leaguer<\/a>, Alc\u00e1ntara\u2019s real strengths are his strong arm and above-average defense at shortstop.<\/p>\n

Alc\u00e1ntara most recently played in the big leagues for the San Francisco Giants, going 0-for-4 last July in his first MLB action since 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since being let go by the Tigers in 2021, Alc\u00e1ntara has spent time in the organizations of the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates and Giants, along with five additional stints with his original organization, the Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n

He was a familiar face during Arizona\u2019s 2023 World Series run. Though not on the active roster, Alc\u00e1ntara traveled with the team as a potential injury replacement through the final game.<\/p>\n

He was signed again by the Diamondbacks last summer<\/a> and earned a few days of MLB service time after being called up, though he did not appear in a game. <\/p>\n

Although Alc\u00e1ntara has bounced around the big leagues, he has been a consistent presence in the Dominican Winter League. This winter marked his 10th season with the Tigres del Licey.<\/p>\n

He has been teammates there with infielder Dawel Lugo<\/a>, who was also part of the J.D. Martinez trade and briefly played in the big leagues for the Tigers. Lugo, 31, played last season in Mexico and has now spent eight winters alongside Alc\u00e1ntara with Licey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT — Former Detroit Tigers infielder Sergio Alc\u00e1ntara has signed a minor-league deal with the Washington Nationals. Alc\u00e1ntara,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,4,415,414,71,4222],"class_list":{"0":"post-544238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-nationals","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-nationals","13":"tag-washingtonnationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115979224943977356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}