The Los Angeles Dodgers have closed the book on one of the more persistent stories in their farm system.
On Tuesday, the club released outfielder Ryan Ward, selling his contract to the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball after designating him for assignment last week, via the MLB transaction log.
The move ends a seven-year run in the organization that produced one of the most prolific power seasons in recent minor-league history.
Ward, 28, was selected in the eighth round of the 2019 draft out of Bryant University. He never became a top prospect, but he kept hitting the ball over fences.
In 2025, he was named Pacific Coast League MVP after slashing .290/.380/.557 with 36 home runs and 122 RBI for Triple-A Oklahoma City.
He led all of Minor League Baseball in homers, RBI, extra-base hits and total bases and won the Joe Bauman Award as the minors’ home-run champion. Those 36 long balls are the number fans still cite when they talk about what might have been.
The Dodgers added him to the 40-man roster that November to keep him from minor-league free agency. He made his major-league debut on April 19, 2026, filling in at first base while Freddie Freeman was on paternity leave.
Over 20 games, he hit .218 with three home runs and 12 RBI, including a grand slam. The sample was small and the results mixed; he was optioned back to Oklahoma City in late June after Teoscar Hernández returned from the injured list.
This season in Triple-A he posted a more ordinary line: a .248 average and 18 homers. Los Angeles, stacked with established left-handed bats and younger outfielders such as Josué De Paula, no longer saw a roster fit.
When the club needed a 40-man spot to activate pitcher Kris Bubic, Ward was the one designated. He cleared waivers and headed to Japan rather than wait for another Triple-A assignment.
The decision is straightforward baseball arithmetic. The Dodgers already have Shohei Ohtani as designated hitter and Freeman at first base; corner-outfield opportunities are scarce. Ward’s power was never in question.
Whether it would play against major-league pitching for a full season remains unanswered. Chunichi, sitting well out of the Central League playoff race, is acquiring him with an eye toward 2027.
For Ward the chapter is bittersweet. He spent years as the organization’s unofficial minor-league folk hero, the player who kept producing when a promotion never came. Now he gets a paycheck and everyday at-bats overseas.
The 36-homer season will stay on the résumé. The question of what he might have done in a larger Dodgers role will stay unanswered.
