Free agent corner infielder Casey McGehee has agreed to a one-year contract with the Yomiuri Giants in Nippon Professional Baseball, reports FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link). The deal guarantees the Meister Sports Management client $2MM for 2017 and includes another $1MM in incentives, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. It also features a club option for 2018.
This will be the second stint in Japan for McGehee, who spent the 2013 campaign with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Between cracking the major leagues in 2008 and joining Tohoku, McGehee combined to hit .257/.314/.414 in 2,041 plate appearances with the Cubs, Brewers, Pirates and Yankees. His best full season came in 2010 as a member of the Brewers, with whom he slashed .285/.337/.464 and tallied a career-high 23 home runs in 670 PAs.
McGehee returned from Japan in 2014 to sign with the Marlins, and he ended up earning National League Comeback Player of the Year honors after posting a respectable .287/.355/.357 line in 691 trips to the plate. His numbers cratered over the past two seasons with the Marlins, Giants and Tigers, though, and McGehee spent the majority of 2016 with Detroit’s Triple-A affiliate in Toledo. Now, as a result of his recent struggles in the majors, the 34-year-old will head back to Japan.
Glad to hear, been a fan of him when he was still with Rakuten even though it was just a short time. Best of luck to him there with the Giants.
He’s a classy guy. Really liked him when he played for SF. He didn’t have a great time there and not only did he accept a demotion to AAA when he didn’t have to accept it, when he lost his starting job to Duffy he handled it in a classy way.
How do you say “ground into a double play” in Japanese? Because that’s a phrase that’s going to be heard often with this guy.
ダブル・プレーに踏み込んだ
Awesome! Thank you!
I am honestly a bit surprised he didn’t get/accept any minor league offers.
Could he have and we just don’t know about it? Like maybe he was offered a really low salary to play for some AAA team and the money in Japan is better?
Honestly I’m surprised he regressed so much after having that comeback season for Miami. I always felt with SF he was “about” to break out but never did.
Minor leaguers make like 50 grand a year. Japan definitely pays better.
I talked to McGehee about his first stint in Japan when he was with the Marlins in 2014. He had only positive remarks, so it doesn’t surprise me that he is willing to return. He will probably make more money over there as well.