Veteran outfielder Jonny Gomes will sign a one-year, $2MM contract with the Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The MVP Sports client can also earn an additional $1MM worth of incentives, Rosenthal adds, and his contract contains a mutual option for the 2017 season as well.
Gomes expressed some frustration regarding the generally slow-moving nature of the free-agent market for position players this year when speaking to Rosenthal. “This is not how it’s supposed to be,” said Gomes. “It seems like the players are getting bullied. It’s February. These people are human beings. They have families. They’ve got to make plans. I’m not trying to get back at baseball by any means. But I’m not just going to hang around. What has changed since the end of September? It’s not like a guy is hot right now or in a slump.”
The 35-year-old Gomes is known for his strong clubhouse presence and ability to crush left-handed pitching, although his numbers versus lefties have tailed off in recent seasons. Though Gomes has batted a very solid .250/.363/.409 when holding the platoon advantage over the past three seasons, those numbers do pale in comparison to the .284/.382/.512 batting line he posted against lefties up through the 2012 season. This past year, Gomes split the season between the Braves and the Royals, batting a combined .213/.313/.347 in 262 plate appearances (.227/.371/.412 against lefties).
Gomes made clear to Rosenthal that he’s still planning on playing beyond the 2016 season, whether it’s in the Major Leagues or overseas. “This isn’t a farewell tour. This isn’t like my last year,” he told Rosenthal. “I have no plans of hanging it up. I can always come back or — if I take off over there — finish my career there.” Gomes also spoke about his excitement over adding another layer of experience to his resume with an eye toward coaching, managing or a career in broadcasting once his playing career is over.
“I’m going go there and help the Rakuten Golden Eagles win the Japan Championship Series” – Jonny Gomes
Yup by playing in 12 regular season and no postseason games haha
Huh? Gomes has played in the MLB post-season on several occasions now.
He was referring to his stint on last years WS Champs.
^
your phone ain’t ringing b/c you hit .213 last year !
He’s acting like there is collusion. Over $2 billion has been spent this winter.
a .371 OBP vs lefties is still extremely useful (and really .310ish overall isn’t too terrible considering plenty of regulars do worse)
He has a World Series ring with Boston.
Sorry Jonny, no one wants a 35 year old 5th OF who in his prime crushed lefties but only had a .783 OPS against them last year. He did well to get his 2-3 mill though.
After the Workd Series Gomes had the audacity to Stand up on the grandstand of Kansas City and gave a fully derogatory speech laced with profanities. I really home he received the unofficial ban from the MLB hence the reason for his signing in Asia. We do not need these types of individuals as role models for or children. He is distasteful and disgraceful. And I wouldn’t be suprised if he was fooling around with PEDs during his above average years.
Sincerely,
A concerned fan from the faith mill
haa is this real??
If he were joking, this’d be hilarious. But I’m not so sure he’s joking.
He asked for a momemt of silence to honor his teammates losses thru the season. He bragged how they won as a team without the best of the best. He says ass one time. No profanity used. Not sure what’s wrong with you but you really need to get that checked out
Jonny Trump?
I don’t even know how to reply to how dub this comment is
I had to laugh at the irony of the misspelling.
I love that guy. Considering how patriotic he is it’ll be interesting to see him in Japan. They won’t know what to do.
These people are human beings. They have families.. And it’s really hard to live off of twenty million over your career so far. Jonny came within inches of saying the dreaded “collusion” word.
13 year career 3.3 war accumulated over that span I’d say baseball has been very kind to Gomes, how many guys who were better have been passed over on teams just because of Gomes mythical clubhouse presence? Why sully what was a well respected career, is Andruw Jones crying he went to japan before you and was probably better and never got back in.
I mean, I wouldn’t want him to manage a team I was rooting for, but his post game interviews would be appointment television.
What a meatball
Andruw as great as he was had several issues with his game. First he was lazy. Second he refused to listen, he tried to pull everything. He lasted on natural ability alone. When the tools diminished the laziness caught up and he was done. Gomes didn’t get there on natural ability. His was good old fashioned hard work.
He is a good role model to young players. There is no way to quantify if that actually makes a difference. But surely it can’t hurt a kids development to learn some of the qualities he passes along.
See ya
How are players “getting bullied”?
Wow, I get his frustration but the idea that the balance of power hasn’t been slanted heavily towards the MLBPA for decades is hilarious.
Oh for Pete’s sake. It’s called Your Career Is OVER. Players are being bullied?!? OK, Jonny. I sure hope you are able to feed your family on the millions you’ve made so far. That job uncertainty must be excruciating for you and your poor nomadic wife and kids,
Does he have any idea how lucky he is to have wrung a few more years out of his career by riding the “good luck charm” thing?
Do players really think fans have sympathy for them on things like this. Unbelievable.
I can’t say the majority of you grasp the situation that the current CBA has done to players. What Gomes is teferring too
Alex Avila hit .189 and still got a call