PHOENIX – The Arizona Diamondbacks announced today they have selected the contract of infielder Russell Branyan, according to D-backs’ Executive Vice President and General Manager Kevin Towers. The move brings the D-backs’ roster to 40 players.

The Diamondbacks had to add Branyan to the 40-man roster on Friday, otherwise, he had the right to ask for his release.

Branyan, 36, is batting .452 (19-for-42) with 3 doubles, 4 home runs and 16 RBI in 18 games this spring. He ranks second among all Major League hitters in RBI and has hit safely in 14 of his 18 games.

Branyan hit .237 (89-for-376) with 47 runs scored, 19 doubles, 25 home runs and 57 RBI in 109 games for the Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners last season.

He opened the season with the Indians before being traded to the Mariners on June 26.

Branyan led the Mariners with 15 home runs despite playing in only 57 games with the club, averaging a home run once every 13.67 at-bats.

Over parts of 13 Major League seasons with the Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals and Mariners, he owns a .234 average (657-for-2807) with 394 runs scored, 136 doubles, 8 triples, 189 home runs and 453 RBI in 991 career games.

Branyan is one of 11 American League players to record at least 25 home runs in each of the last two seasons and his 56 long balls since the start of 2009 rank 11th in the AL.

In 2008, he became the first player in Brewers’ franchise history to reach 10 home runs in 20 games or fewer into his season after doing so in his 20th game.

Branyan was drafted by the Indians in the seventh round of the 1994 First-Year Player Draft out of Stratford Academy in Macon, Ga.

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