Rougned Odor, who played in 1,154 Major League Baseball games, has quit Japan's Yomiuri Giants after being asked to start his first Japanese season in the minors, the Central League club said Tuesday, three days before Opening Day.
After speaking to first-year manager Shinnosuke Abe and others, and being told the team wanted him to make adjustments on the farm team, Odor submitted his resignation so that he might catch on with an MLB club, and the Giants consented.
The Giants had hoped Odor, who hit 178 home runs in MLB, would provide some power from the left side. But he did not join the team in spring training until the middle of February and hit just .176 in 12 preseason exhibitions.
Giants executive Sadaaki Yoshimura said, "He said he wouldn't accept being sent down to the farm team. We continued to explain it to him in numerous conversations, but his feeling never wavered."
