The Cincinnati Reds have announced that they have officially released outfielder Shogo Akiyama. Several days ago the team informed Akiyama that he was not going to make the opening day roster. He had a clause in his contract that he could refuse an assignment to the minor leagues and he was going to take time to determine if he would accept an assignment to the minors or if he would go in a different direction. It would seem that a different direction was the choice that he made. Cincinnati will still owe him his $8,000,000 salary for 2022.

The stay in Cincinnati could not have gone worse for Shogo Akiyama. In his first big league season he was introduced to Major League Baseball during a worldwide pandemic that led to two different versions of spring training and then empty ballparks once the season did begin. He hit .196 in the first 31 games of the year, but rebounded well by hitting .318 in September over a 23 game stretch to finish the year.