In the early 2020s, Boston Red Sox fans hoped then-top prospect slugger Bobby Dalbec would become a staple of the big league team. After multiple attempts at sticking in the major leagues, he couldn't work out his consistency issues.
The Red Sox designated Dalbec for assignment in 2024 after parts of five seasons in the big leagues, each worse than the last. He left Boston a career .222/.290/.425 hitter in the majors and signed with the White Sox for the 2025 season, where he posted very similar results in the big leagues and moved around the minor leagues in the Brewers and Royals organizations.
Dalbec is entering his age-31 season and it would've been hard to find a MLB suitor willing to take a chance on him. On December 21, Dalbec signed with the Yomiuri Giants to take his talents across the Pacific to Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Gaijin Baseball was the first to report the deal and Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported that Dalbec will receive over $1 million guaranteed.
Dalbec will hopefully have more success in NPB than he did in MLB, as he did in Triple-A. NPB and the minor leagues aren't entirely comparable, but the pitching isn't yet on an MLB level. Dalbec has batted .263/.351/.520 with an .871 OPS over 359 games in Triple-A, and he's hit more than 20 home runs in each of his last three seasons.
Former top Red Sox prospects Bobby Dalbec and Bryan Mata sign with Yomiuri Giants
omg. Bobby Dalbec just hit this ball 515 feet. five hundred fifteen.
— Worcester Red Sox (@WooSox) May 19, 2023
f i v e h u n d r e d f i f t e e n. pic.twitter.com/2ZoJkYNniz
Dalbec will join another formerly highly touted Red Sox prospect on the Giants: Bryan Mata. Boston signed Mata in 2016 as an international free agent out of Venezuela and he was one of, if not the most highly touted pitching prospect in the organization for a few years. Many injuries and years of setbacks later, the Red Sox DFA'd Mata in 2025. Boston DFA'd him before the 2025 season as well, but re-signed him to a minor league deal to keep him in the organization. No such deal came this time.
Mata posted a 5.08 ERA and a 1.66 WHIP with 93 strikeouts and 39 walks over 67.1 innings with the WooSox in 2025. The Red Sox hoped to see him in the major leagues and he was one of the team's last roster cuts in spring training, but he never got his chance to play in the big leagues. At 27, finding a suitor would be difficult.
Dalbec and Mata were both popular prospects in Boston and it's a shame neither of them worked out enough to stick, or make his big league debut in Mata's case, with the Red Sox organization. Hopefully they're successful in their new uniform — Dalbec may meet his 30-homer potential after all.