Jan. 29: The Fighters announced that they’ve signed Reyes.
Jan. 7: Franmil Reyes is on the verge of officially signing with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball, according to multiple reports out of the Dominican Republic.
Reyes hit .260/.325/.503 with 92 home runs with San Diego and Cleveland over 1540 plate appearances during the 2018-21 seasons. Despite a lot of strikeouts in that span, Reyes looked like one of baseball’s up-and-coming sluggers before his performance took a sudden downturn. Reyes has hit only .217/.268/.356 with 16 homers in 538 PA since the start of the 2022 season, while striking out over a third of the time.
Though the Guardians were in sore need of power during the 2022 season, Reyes’ struggles were so pronounced that Cleveland designated him for assignment that August, and he was quickly claimed by the Cubs off waivers but didn’t experience much of a bounce-back on his new team. Reyes has subsequently signed minor league contracts with the Royals and Nationals within the last year, but his contribution to the 2023 Major League season consisted of just 19 games with Kansas City. His last minor league came on July 8 with the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate, and Washington released Reyes in August.
Rather than deal with the uncertainty of another minor league contract, Reyes will instead head to Japan on a guaranteed contract and in search of a fresh start to his career. Reyes is still only 28, so there’s lots of time to potentially seek out a return to MLB if he gets on track with the Fighters, whether next winter or perhaps multiple years down the line.
I forgot about this guy
Ex fat Indian
So you’re are saying he became a thin Guardian
Reyes had a great attitude just too much swing and miss, wish him success with NPB
But then again, he’s very forgettable
Lol and who are you?
The Franimal
He strikes me as a guy who could go over there, really figure some stuff out and come back much better. In the Eric Thames vein, I know Eric only had 3 good years out of 5 when he came back but he was twice the player to. Japan is the place to go if you need to learn to hit the breaking ball
He strikes me as a strike out guy. But he will dwarf the Japanese players. He’s a big dude.
… Thames played in Korea.
How does Myles Straw and Austin Hedges have a job but not Franmil. These GMs don’t have a clue about how to win baseball games
Austin Hedges is a catcher, a defense-first position
Straw could lose his job to Florial, and Florial is not that great
Defense
So if you were a GM you’d sign Franmil Reyes to be your backup catcher or centerfielder?
CLE decided they needed more offense from the catching position, so they went right out and signed……..Austin Hedges. And don’t be surprised if that’s the only FA they sign even though they still need a corner OF who can drive in runs. Straw is only employed because he’s in the midst of a 5-year $25M extension. It’s clear to me that no matter what results he produces he’ll be out there every day. They’ll cook off his contract just like they did with Kipnis. I heard last week they were interested in bringing Reyes back – not because he’s gotten his act together, but because nobody else wants him and he works cheap. Guardians don’t scrape the bottom of the barrel, they shop UNDER the barrel.
It’s called defense. Look it up. Cleveland values defense
Do I have to use “google” as my search engine to find it? Or can I use bing? Or duckduckgo?
I am just one person though. The world at large needs to know! MLBTR’s might allow you on their podcast.
I know they’re technically the Nippon-Ham Fighters, but in our hearts they will always be the Nippon Ham-Fighters.
I want a Ham-Fighters hat with 2 pigs on the front, in samurai attire, swinging kendo sticks at each other.
For the right amount of money, you could probably get one made
What if both pigs were outfitted in blankets instead? I mean, since you brought it up, I’ll take two pigs in a blanket right now… mmmm
That’s right Clip, make me hungry again!
BBQ on those little buggars?
I can put BBQ sauce on just about everything…Speaking of little buggars though, I had NO idea that Ausmus was the Yanks new bench coach. He obviously wants to manage again. He has never had enough fire for my liking though. Don’t you gotta have fire to make it as a Yanks coach??!
Not under Boone… you just need to be a buddy.
Hmmm I can see how that works. Boone is the managerial equivalent of Gardy haha Man I miss that guy and his bat smashing on the dugout roof! That guy was my kinda player!
He could be a 1 and done guy, or the next Alex Cabrera that left MLB and figured play in Japan for a season or 2 and wound up spending a dozen seasons there setting HR records along the way.
Say hello to Gosuke Kato for me.
The analytical geeks need to apologize to baseball fans for promoting all these horrible Three True Outcome Darlings.
They need to apologize first for coining the phrase “Three True Outcomes.”
He’s more of a one outcome type and that outcome is getting an out
The Franimal is going to feast on NPB pitching
Probably should have gotten a deal in the KBO, as that is a little easier to hit in, but he should be okay in the NPB.
Padres couldn’t afford him?! Gees!
Steamed hams?
I predict a lot of homers
I hope Franny figures it out in Japan. He was a pretty fun player to watch when he was right.
Can you say real life Pedro Serano !
Let’s hope he leaves Jobu back in the States.
Franmil will probably hit 50 homers in Japan. It always amazes me when this massively large guys don’t hit 40 every year once they reach MLB. But I guess you do have to make solid contact. Puig was another disappointment in a large guy not living up to his power potential.
Surprise the White Sox didn’t sign him. They’ve been stacking that team like no other!
I always get him confused with Jesus Aguilar. You’d have to convince me they’re two different players.
Aguilar plays for the Seibu Lions so watch the Lions vs the Fighters and you will see they different people lol
I’ve always found Carlos Santana and Domingo Santana to be nearly inseparable, down to the last name and similar facial hair.
The hell is a ham fighter? Japanese baseball has the weirdest mascots.
The mascot is just Fighters. Nippon Ham is the company that owns the team.
With the Padres, FranRey seemed like he was a good guy. He also seemed like he was having a good time, but not improving. When the Padres needed depth, they sent him as part of a three for one package.
I would like to think the Padres would have kept him around if they had the DH at the time. He was a fan favorite.
I agree
As a defender, he’ll lay a dozen eggs for these Nippon-Hams
I still like ham.