Catching up on some news that was set aside during the trade deadline frenzy, the Yankees announced yesterday that infielder was released and signed with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japans Nippon Profe sional Baseball. Downs, 26, wasnt a Yankee for very long. He was claimed Ross Colton Jersey off waivers from the Nationals in December, with the Yankees then pa sing him through waivers unclaimed in January. He didnt have the right to elect free agency at that time and has been in the Yankees system in a non-roster capacity since then. He has been having a decent year at Triple-A. In 69 games for Scranton Wilkes-Barre, he hit 10 home runs and slashed .264/.360/.498 for a wRC+ of 117. He also stole 15 bases while bouncing between second base, third base and shortstop. Despite those decent numbers, he never got called up to the majors even though the Yankees have had plenty of infield challenges. Players like , and have had disappointing seasons so far and has been on the injured list for most of the year. But the club never felt compelled to call upon Downs and eventually acquired Jazz Chisholm from the Marlins and plugged him onto their roster. Since he was fairly blocked from getting any playing time in the Bronx, he will instead go overseas to see if this opportunity will work out for him. Downs was once a top 100 prospect during his time in the Dodgers system, before being traded to the Red Sox in the that sent and to Los Angeles. He struggled to live up to the hype in the subsequent seasons, hitting .200/.309/.365 in the minors over the 2021-23 campaigns. He was only given brief looks in the majors, producing a line of .182/.260/.273 in 50 plate appearances. He went from the Red Sox to the Nationals on waivers in December of 2022 but then the Yankees got him off waivers a year later, as mentioned. If he fares well in Japan, he could intrigue teams based his past. He hit .267/.359/.458 in the minors from 2017 to 2019, though mostly at the lower levels, with only 12 games above High-A in that time. But he has the former prospect pedigree and was performing well in Triple-A this year. A nice run with the Hawks could perhaps lead the way to a return to the majors down the line, especially since hes still only 26 years old. Keaton Middleton Jersey