Major Leaguers to play in Japan

With 14-year Major League veteran Adam Jones taking a deal to play baseball in Japan with the Orix Buffaloes, it’s worth taking a look at other former Major Leaguers to play in Japan. It’s been a frequent destination for players after their Major League careers are over -- or even as an interlude between Major League stints. Certain players who did not find success in the Majors did manage to find it in Japan, and others were able to have enough success to get another look from a Major League team thanks to their results in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Here’s a look at some notable Major Leaguers to go on to play in Japan, in reverse chronological order. Note that this list excludes players whose professional careers began in Nippon Professional Baseball, but covers players who began in the Majors.

Miles Mikolas: 2015-17
Mikolas made his Major League debut with the Padres in 2012 as a reliever. In his first year as a starter with the Rangers in '14, he posted a 6.44 ERA in 10 starts. For '15, Mikolas headed to Japan to pitch for the Yomiuri Giants. In three seasons in Japan, Mikolas had a 2.18 ERA in 62 starts. On the strength of his resume there, Mikolas returned to the Majors for the '18 season with the Cardinals, signing a two-year deal.

Wily Mo Peña: 2012-17
Peña debuted in 2002 as a 20-year-old with the Reds and played in the Majors in eight seasons for the Reds, Red Sox, Nationals, D-backs and Mariners. His final Major League game was in 2011. At that point, he was 29, but he had not been able to play consistently at the Major League level. In 2012, he joined the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and hit 21 homers there -- more than he’d hit in all but one of his Major League seasons. He was an NPB All-Star in 2012 and 2014. The '14 season was the best of his career -- he hit 32 homers and knocked in 90 runs.

Wladimir Balentien: 2011-pres.
Balentien played in 170 Major League games for the Mariners and Reds between 2007 and '09. He hit 15 homers, hit .221 and slugged .374 for his career. But he arrived in Japan to play for the Yakult Swallows in 2011, and it’s been an entirely different experience. In 2013, Balentien hit 60 home runs, breaking the prior single-season record of 55, set by Sadaharu Oh and later tied by Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera. Balentien won the Central League MVP Award that year. He’s still playing in Japan -- in 2019, he hit 33 homers for the Central League’s Swallows.

Ryan Vogelsong: 2007-09
Vogelsong debuted for the Giants in 2000 as a 23-year-old and was traded to the Pirates during the 2001 season. After missing time for Tommy John surgery, Vogelsong returned to the Majors in '03 and posted a 5.87 ERA in 270-plus innings from 2003-06 for the Pirates. Following the '06 season, Vogelsong went to Japan to pitch for the Hanshin Tigers in '07. He pitched for them for two seasons, then the Orix Buffaloes in '09. In '10, he found himself back in the United States in the Minors for the Phillies, who released him in July. He signed with the Angels for the rest of that season before becoming a free agent, at which time he signed with the Giants. In his second stint with the Giants, he became a postseason hero.

Alex Cabrera: 2001-12
Cabrera’s Major League career was comprised of just 31 games with the D-backs in 2000, when he hit five home runs. As a 29-year-old in '01, he headed to the Seibu Lions and promptly hit 49 home runs. In '02, he hit 55 home runs, tying the single-season record at the time, set by Oh and tied by Rhodes a season prior.

Tuffy Rhodes: 1996-2005, 2007-09
Rhodes played six years in the Majors for the Astros, Cubs and Red Sox, compiling a .224 batting average and 13 home runs. In 1996, he began his career with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, and it was a different story. Rhodes hit at least 20 homers in each of his seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball with the Buffaloes, Yomiuri Giants and then the Orix Buffaloes, after NPB realigned. In 2001, Rhodes won the MVP Award, hitting .327 with 55 homers. Those 55 homers tied the single-season record at the time, which had been set by Oh.

Julio Franco: 1995, 1998
Franco’s Major League career, which began in 1982 and ended in 2007, was long and storied. But you may not recall that it included two separate stops in Japan along the way, too, among other destinations. In 1995, Franco hit .306 with 25 doubles for the Chiba Lotte Marines. He returned to the Majors for 1996 and 1997, before heading back to the Marines for 1998. That time, he hit .290 with 27 doubles and 18 homers. In 1999, he played very briefly in the Majors, then continued along the way with his Major League career -- with a season in Korea in there, too.

Alonzo Powell: 1992-98
Powell’s Major League career was 71 games -- 14 in 1987 with the Expos and 57 in 1991 with the Mariners. After plenty of Minor League games, Powell headed to Japan in 1992 to play for the Chunichi Dragons. In his first season, he hit .308, beginning a stretch of five straight seasons hitting well above .300. He won three straight batting titles from 1994-96 and was a two-time Central League All-Star. In 1998, Powell played in the Minors again, in the Blue Jays organization, but he also played his final season in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Hanshin Tigers. He did not return to the Majors after his initial stints in 1987 and 1991.

Rich Gossage: 1990
In his age-38 season in 1990, Gossage, who had already compiled a noteworthy Major League career that featured nine All-Star appearances, signed with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in Japan in July. He had a 4.40 ERA and eight saves in 28 appearances. He returned to the Majors in 1991 and pitched four more seasons, achieving the most success in that stint in 1992 with the A’s, albeit in only 30 games.

Orestes Destrade: 1989-92, 1995
In 1987-88, Destrade hit .182 with one home run in 45 games for the Yankees and Pirates. In 1989, he headed to Japan to play for the Seibu Lions. In his first year, he hit 32 homers. The next year, he hit a professional career-high 42. Overall, Destrade led the league in home runs in three straight years. He was named Japan Series MVP in 1990. He returned to the Majors in 1993-94 with the Marlins, before finishing his professional career with 46 games with the Lions in 1995.

Cecil Fielder: 1989
Fielder debuted in 1985 with the Blue Jays and played 220 games for Toronto, hitting 31 homers over four seasons and batting .243. In 1989, Fielder signed a contract to play for the Hanshin Tigers. In one season there, he hit .302 with 38 homers and a .638 slugging percentage. Renewed, he returned to the Majors in 1990 to play for the Tigers and hit a career-high 51 homers that season, finishing second in MVP Award voting. He’d finish second for the award in the following season, too, when he hit 44 homers.

Warren Cromartie: 1984-90
Cromartie played in 1,038 games for the Expos from 1974-83, hitting 60 homers with a .280 batting average and .737 OPS. As a 30-year-old in 1984, he headed to Japan to play for the Yomiuri Giants. He had quite the impact, winning Nippon Professional Baseball's Most Valuable Player Award in 1989 for a season in which he hit .378 with a 1.009 OPS. Cromartie hit 30-plus homers in three straight seasons from 1984-86 there, too. He returned briefly to the Majors in 1991, playing 69 games for the Royals before his professional career ended for good.

Randy Bass: 1983-88
Bass had a modest Major League career, with 130 games over six years from 1977-82. He hit nine career homers. But when he headed to Japan for 1983 to play for the Hanshin Tigers, he found some power. In six career seasons with the Tigers, Bass hit 202 home runs and batted .337 with a 1.078 OPS.

Willie Davis: 1977-78
Across 17 years from 1960-76, Davis played in more than 2,300 games for the Dodgers, Expos, Rangers, Cardinals and Padres. He hit .279 with 397 stolen bases. By the end of that, he was 36 years old. At that point, he headed to Japan for the 1977 and '78 seasons, playing for the Central League’s Chunichi Dragons in '77 and then the Pacific League’s Crown Lighter Lions in '78. He hit .297 there with 43 homers. After that, he briefly returned to the Majors in 1979, playing in 43 games for the Angels, the final Major League games of his career.

Charlie Manuel: 1976-81
Manuel’s Major League career spanned from 1969 through 1975, consisting of 242 games with the Twins, from 1969-72 and the Dodgers, from 1974-75. He hit .198 with four home runs. As a 32-year-old in 1976, he went to Japan to play for the Yakult Swallows, and he was transformed at the plate. He hit 42 homers in his second year in 1977, also posting a .316 batting average. In 1979, he hit .324 for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, with 37 homers and 94 RBIs, winning MVP. Overall, Manuel hit .303 with a .604 slugging percentage in Nippon Professional Baseball, with 189 career home runs.

Zoilo Versalles: 1972
Versalles won the 1965 American League MVP Award, with a Major League-leading 45 doubles coupled with a whopping 122 strikeouts. He played 11 years in the Majors from 1959-69, at which point he was at a bit of a crossroads. Versalles hit .196 in 1968 and .236 in 1969. After that, he played the entire 1970 season in Triple-A before returning to the Majors in 1971 and hitting .191 in 66 games. He did not return to the Majors after that, playing in Triple-A, Double-A and Japan, in 1972, with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp for 48 games, where he hit .189.

Larry Doby: 1962
Doby, who broke the color barrier in the American League after Jackie Robinson did so in the National League, was a seven-time All-Star and won the 1948 World Series with the Indians. His final Major League game was July 26, 1959, but his professional career lasted just a bit longer. For 1962, he joined the Chunichi Dragons, along with Don Newcombe, and he played in 72 games, hitting .225 with 10 homers.

Don Newcombe: 1962
Newcombe was a pitcher in the Majors, albeit a strong hitter as well, with a .271 career average and 15 homers. He won Rookie of the Year in 1949 and both the Cy Young and MVP Awards in 1956. But when he headed to the Chunichi Dragons in 1962 after his Major League career had ended, he primarily played the outfield and first base, making just one start on the mound. In 81 games at the plate, he hit .262 with 12 homers.