Nats sign Dan Uggla to minor league deal (updated with more signings)

The Nationals have signed second baseman Dan Uggla to a minor league deal, the team announced, reuniting the veteran infielder with Mike Rizzo, who as the Diamondbacks' scouting director drafted Uggla in 2001.

Uggla's minor league deal includes an invitation to big league spring training, where he will likely compete for the Nats' starting second base job.

Uggla has big power potential, and displayed it from 2007-2011, when he hit more than 30 home runs five years in a row. Since then, however, his batting average and on-base percentage numbers have slid significantly, eventually causing the Braves to release him midway through last season.

The 34-year-old then signed with the Giants, playing in just four games and striking out six times in 11 hitless at-bats before again being released.

As a whole, Uggla hit .149/.229/.213 with 46 strikeouts in 141 at-bats in 2014, this after posting a .179/.309/.362 line in 136 games with the Braves the year before.

Rizzo has long held Uggla in high regard, however, and now will give Uggla another chance to put things together this spring.

Rizzo selected Uggla in the 11th round of the 2001 draft, but Uggla never played a game in a D-backs uniform. The Marlins swooped in and took the former University of Memphis product in the 2005 Rule 5 draft, and Uggla hit it big in Florida.

As it stands right now, Uggla and Danny Espinosa - another bulky infielder with big pop and high strikeout numbers - are the two top options for the second base job, but Rizzo likely isn't done adding to the list of candidates.

Update: The Nats also announced they've signed right-handers Mitch Lively and Scott McGregor and first baseman Clint Robinson to minor league deals with invitations to big league spring training.

Lively spent the final two months of the 2014 season at Triple-A Syracuse after starting the year at the Giants' Triple-A affiliate, and posted a 3.86 ERA in nine games (seven starts) for the Chiefs. McGregor went 4-9 with a 5.56 ERA for three different minor league teams last season. He also ended the year with Triple-A Syracuse. Robinson hit .312/.401/.534 with 18 homers in 119 games for Triple-A Albuquerque in 2014 and is 3-for-13 in his minimal action at the big league level.

The Nationals also made their previously reported signings of Heath Bell and Ian Stewart official.