Former Cincinnati Reds shortstop set to play overseas in 2022

Freddy Galvis is packing his bags and heading overseas. The former Cincinnati Reds infielder is poised to sign with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Galvis was acquired by the Reds in 2019 from the Toronto Blue Jays and was the team's starting shortstop in pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Former Reds SS Freddy Galvis is signing with NPB.

According to Yahoo! Japan, Softbank is moving to acquire Galvis. The infielder spent last season with the Baltimore Orioles after signing a one-year/$1.5M pact.

Galvis spent the better part of his major league career with the Philadelphia Phillies.

While playing in the City of Brotherly Love, Galvis hit .244/.287/.373.

The infielder was much more of a glove-first shortstop, topping all NL shortstops in fielding percentage in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Galvis was also nominated for two Gold Gloves during his time with the Phillies, but never took home the trophy.

Freddy Galvis was the San Diego Padres starting shortstop in 2018 and earned the same title for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2019.

Galvis was claimed off waivers by the Cincinnati Reds during August of that season.

Cincinnati passed on brining back José Iglesias in 2020 and instead inserted Galvis as the team's starting shortstop.

The Reds front office felt that Galvis offered more pop than the aforementioned Iglesias.

In the abbreviated 2020 season, however, Galvis posted a .712 OPS with seven round trippers while Iglesias hit .373/.400/.556 with 3 homers and 24 RBIs for the Baltimore Orioles.

It's conceivable that Freddy Galvis would have had some sort of market following the MLB lockout, or at the very least secured a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training.

However, it appears as though Galvis is headed overseas to play at the highest level of baseball in Japan.

The Cincinnati Reds signed their very first Japanese-born player, Shogo Akiyama, prior to the 2020 season. Akiyama previously played for the Seibu Lions of the Nippon Professional Baseball league.