The Diamondbacks have sold the contract of first baseman/outfielder Kyle Jensen to Japan’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, per a club announcement. Robert Murray of Fan Rag reported the move.
Jensen was recently designated for assignment by Arizona. The 28-year-old received his first crack at the majors in 2016 after joining the Snakes on a minor league pact last winter, though he didn’t receive much playing time. He spent most of his time at Triple-A, as he has for the past several seasons.
There is some reason for optimism for the former 12th-round pick, who has spent each of the last three seasons with a different organization. Over 555 plate appearances at the highest level of the minors, he posted a .289/.350/.546 slash and added thirty home runs — marking the sixth-straight minor league campaign in which he has hit at least twenty long balls.
Bummer. Really enjoyed watching him in Reno. Hopefully he can “pull a Thames”.
I read this as Kenley Jansen and became immediately confused.
Same
And now you know the rest of the story..
Welcome to Fukuoka!
I think he’d be a good player in the Majors. He will likely destroy Japanese baseball. I predict numbers like Reno, maybe even more homers with the smaller ballparks.
I’m surprised the DBacks didn’t keep him around to have a closer look at. In his cup of coffee, I thought he handled the call up quite well.
I’m not sure he’ll hit NPB pitching. He strikes out a lot, and his minor league numbers were probably inflated playing in Reno, which is a great place to hit. He had only the third highest OPS on the 2016 Aces among players with at least 200 plate appearances. At least he’s still reasonably young.