On Sunday afternoon, MLB Trade Rumors reported (via Twitter) that 29-year-old Kansas City Royals first baseman / outfielder Ryan McBroom had requested unconditional release waivers from the team so that he could pursue a career with a professional team in Asia.

Although the report did not indicate where McBroom would be signing, likely landing spots are Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), or the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan. It did, however, indicate that the Royals would likely receive some financial compensation wherever McBroom ends up.

So what does any this have to do with the Dodgers and why even bring it up on a Dodgers-based blog site, you ask?

A valid question.

The answer? Perhaps nothing at all, but also perhaps a great deal – and not just for the Dodgers but for every Major League Baseball franchise.

In the simplest of terms and meaning absolutely no disrespect to McBroom whatsoever, he is (was) a Four-A player at best, and it takes the same skillset to make it to – and remain at – baseball’s second highest level as well. Over the past three seasons, the Fredericksburg, VA native and 15th-round draft pick in 2014 by the Toronto Blue Jays out of West Virginia University in Morgantown has been called up and sent back down to Triple-A Omaha several times – not unlike fringe players in every MLB organization.

Over three seasons with the Yankees and Royals Triple-A affiliates, McBroom slashed a respectable .290/.361/.517 through 1,363 plate appearances; not over-the-top numbers but certainly good enough to warrant those occasional call-ups to The Show. However, in his nine plate appearances with the Royals during those brief 2021 call-ups, he went 2-for-8 (both singles), with no RBI, one walk and six strikeouts for a less-than-stellar .250 / .333 / .250 / .583 slash line; hence the reason he was sent back down to the minors.

To his credit and certainly worthy of mention (and undoubtedly what foreign scouts are very well aware of) is that in his combined 177 plate appearances in the 66 Major League games that McBroom appeared in with the Royals over three seasons, he slashed .268 / .322 / .427 / .749, with six home runs and 16 RBI, while walking 12 times and striking out 61 times.

All of this said, keep in mind that there are only 780 players in all of baseball on MLB’s 30 26-man active rosters. (Note: This does not include the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, when teams were allowed 30 active players and 28 active players from early August through the postseason).

The point to all of this is that despite their incredible MLB-worthy talents, the chances of a minor leaguer actually becoming one of those elite 780 major leaguers are overwhelming and a very valid reason to seek playing professionally in other countries. Heck, even our own (thus far) beloved Albert Pujols is fulfilling a promise he made years ago to play in the Dominican Winter League this off-season with the Leones del Escogido. The extremely popular 41-year-old native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic made it abundantly clear that even after his just-completed 21st MLB season, the future (first ballot) Hall of Famer is not ready to retire from baseball’s highest level yet.

“I made a promise. I said I was going to play here before I retire. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to retire yet,” Pujols told reporters last week. “My time to retire hasn’t arrived yet. Why do I have to retire because someone tells me to? I’m going to do it on my terms and when I feel I can’t play anymore.”

There is no disputing that the McBroom and Pujols situations are clearly an apple-to-oranges comparison and have (very) little in common.

…except for the fact that both will be playing professional baseball in different countries.

試合開始 ! – (Play Ball! in Japanese).

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