7:38AM Tuesday
March 12, 2013

Cleveland has released outfielder Ben Francisco, who signed a minor-league deal with the Indians in January and was competing for a bench job.

Early in his career Francisco was a productive regular, hitting .263 with a .775 OPS in 1,221 plate appearances through age 28, but his OPS has dipped to .691 during the past two seasons and at age 31 he may have to work his way back to the majors with some time at Triple-A.

Francisco was originally drafted by the Indians in 2002 and got sent to the Phillies as part of the Cliff Lee trade in mid-2009, bouncing around quite a bit since then.