Rangers sign Robinson Chirinos to one-year contract extension with club option

The Texas Rangers today announced that the club has signed catcher Robinson Chirinos to a one-year contract extension covering the 2018 season, and the deal includes a club option for the 2019 campaign. No financial terms were disclosed.
 
Chirinos, 32, was the Rangers' Opening Day catcher in both 2015 and 2016. He has averaged 11 home runs and 76 games for Texas over the last three seasons (2014-16), with his .745 OPS in that span ranking ninth among all major league catchers with at least 700 plate appearances. Chirinos owns a career .230 batting average with 33 home runs in 261 major league games with Tampa Bay (2011) and Texas (2013-16). He has caught 29.6% of attempted base stealers since 2014, the 5th-best percentage among American League qualifiers (minimum 200 games).
 
Chirinos batted .224 with 9 home runs and 20 RBI in 57 games with Texas last season, missing two months with a right forearm fracture sustained on a hit by pitch in April. He averaged a home run every 16.33 at-bats last year, the second-best figure among Rangers with at least 150 plate appearances. He returned to Rangers spring training camp today after playing for Team Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic this month, starting 5 of the team's 7 games in the tournament.
 
The winner of the Rangers 2016 Jim Sundberg Community Award, Chirinos has been extremely active in community work since joining Texas. He started the Robinson Chirinos Foundation, located in his hometown of Punto Fijo, Venezuela, in 2012, which benefits youth and families in that community.