The Rays have sold the rights of Brandon Allen to a Japanese team, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (on Twitter). They've sold his rights to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune reports (on Twitter).
Allen, 26, appeared in seven games for the Rays after Tampa Bay claimed him off of waivers from the Athletics. The Rays removed Allen from their roster in June and assigned him to Triple-A, a level at which he has a .283/.390/.543 batting line in parts of four seasons.
They can do that?
I *think* the player has a chance to just be like “nope” and get out of the contract?
Last I knew, yes, the player usually tells management that they’re interested in going to Japan, and they gauge interest.
I guess you could say Allen has taken his talents out of south beach
And to SoftBank.
Tampa Bay is no where close to south beach…
… I wonder what the price tag was? I would’ve liked to have acquired him for my slow pitch softball team. Bet he would’ve mashed.
That’s messed up!
Wasn’t this a prank pulled by the Phillies a few years ago?
Dipoto, stop whatever you’re doing and sell Wells and Santana to Nippon Ham. All that money the Rangers gave them for Darvish could bail us out.
Allen: “All right, what are my choices?”
Maddon: “Well, they aren’t exactly choices Brandon. We only had one taker so we took.”
Allen: “Not Cleveland. Say it’s not Cleveland!”
Maddon: “…Not Cleveland.”
I keep seeing “Ray Allen” in this headline and it’s giving me anger.
I don’t understand, a 26 year old hitting .283 in AAA is not good enough?
So, does he count as an export when they figure out international trade statistics?