Wily Mo Pena Not Returning to MLB

It might not be MLB news, but it definitely qualifies as professional baseball news. Most recently a member of the Seattle Mariners on North American soil in 2011 , Wily Mo Pena has agreed to a one-year deal with Japan’s Rakuten Golden Eagles for 2015.

Pena was credited throughout his MLB career as having prolific power in batting practice. The odd time in games, it has also been pretty prolific, I suppose. While he was with the Red Sox from 2006-07, teammates said that as much fun as it was to watch David Ortiz take BP, Pena was the main event. Unfortunately, baseball is a lot more than just a game of hitting a ball really far on very select occasions.

The 33-year old Dominican native has a career .250/.303/.445 slash line in America. Pena’s best single season came in 2004 when he produced a line of .259-45-26-66-5. A right-handed bat, he struggled more in his MLB career to hit right-handed pitching. His career splits have him at .236 versus .275 against southpaws.

Pena was signed as an IFA by the New York Mets in 1998, but never made an appearance for them. His best pay check came in 2008 when he collected $2 million from the Washington Nationals. He failed to play 2009 or 2010 in the big leagues, instead attempting to rebuilding his reputation in the minors. A brief stint in 2011 with two clubs, the D-back’s and M’s, proved to be his final season thus far in MLB.

In 2014 with the Orix Buffaloes, he hit .255 with 32 home runs, raising the possibility of him returning to the majors for 2015. It never came to fruition, as limited interest from teams did not guarantee him a spot on a 40-man roster.

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Pena was and is a liability on defense. Combined with his relatively low on-base figures, it remains to be seen if a contract in MLB can materialize for 2016. It would take a pretty exceptional season from him in 2015 with the Golden Eagles, but the one year pact does leave open a door for his return in what would be his age 34 season.

His digression in Nippon Professional Baseball does not bode well for that prospect, however. The year before his injury riddled 2013 season, Pena hit .280 in 2012.

Statistics aside, Pena probably is an exciting figure to watch play baseball in Japan. His size 6-foot-3, 260 pound frame is an anomaly for pro baseball players on the island country. An emphasis for position players is placed on being lean, fleet of foot and capable of getting on-base at a high percentage while offering outstanding defensive skills. So in essence, Wily Mo Pena is kind of the antithesis of pro baseball in Japan. So far, the Golden Eagles, along with the Buffaloes and Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, don’t seem to mind.