This offseason Brad Penny signed a one-year, $4 million contract with the SoftBank Hawks in Japan, but the two sides have already parted ways.
Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker linked to a Japanese report that says Penny complained of shoulder soreness after a poor debut on April 4 and hasn’t pitched since, with team officials saying that he had trouble adapting to Japanese baseball and wanted to be let go.
It’s unclear how much of that $4 million Penny will keep, but his contract also included $3.5 million in potential incentives that are presumably now out the window.
Penny is 33 years old, apparently has a sore arm, and posted a 5.30 ERA with nearly as many walks (62) as strikeouts (74) for the Tigers last season, so odds are he’ll have trouble finding more than a minor-league contract back home.
