After 11 major-league seasons, Marwin Gonzalez is taking his talents to Osaka. After a woeful 2022 season, the journeyman outfielder/utility player has agreed to a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s top league, Nippon Professional Baseball.
The Buffaloes, who split their games between Osaka and Kobe, Japan, won the NPB championship in 2022 as 33-year-old Gonzalez’s MLB stardom faded drastically.
While Marwin Gonzalez had many big moments with a handful of teams, the New York Yankees were not exactly one of them. Last year, Gonzalez hit just .185 in his first and only season with the Yankees. While the team has an opening in left field, Gonzalez was not going to be the one to fill it — even at just $1.5 million for 2023. That said, New York fans are sending him off with a Bronx cheer.
Fans of some teams that have not fared so well this offseason took the Gonzalez news as an opportunity to twist the knife with the clubs that have made this the winter of their discontent.
Apparently, Marwin Gonzalez signing with the Buffaloes is just another case of the rich getting richer — Japan style.
And, of course, any news coming out of the Big Apple not having to do with possible New York Mets shortstop Carlos Correa meets with some predictable responses.
Marwin Gonzalez helped bring Houston Astros a World Series championship
