A few weeks ago, Curaçao native Wladimir Balentien posted a somewhat mysterious Tweet about things having an end. Yours truly’s first thought was “He is retiring.” But from there no new Tweet or answer to the questions that came after that specific Tweet.
The specific Tweet, Wladimir Balentien started all confusion with, is shown below.
As written in the prologue, since then, no answer or new Tweet… Until today.
You can wonder if Balentien is confusing his fans or if he is really hinting retirement. If he is talking about retirement, it doesn’t really come as a surprise. Since he signed a contract with the SoftBank Hawks, he hasn’t been the impact player he was with the Yakult Swallows. So far with the SoftBank Hawks’ NPB team, Balentien was hitting a respectable .281 this season. But with some players from Cuba coming back, he was sent down to the Japanese minor leagues (Ni-Gun) again, where he is hitting a meager .182 so far.
A few minutes after the earlier Tweet today, Balentien posted the following Tweet.
So, two weeks after his initial Tweet about things having an end, he is making clear that he will retire after the end of the season. With the first Tweet of today, Balentien indicates that he would like to retire with the Yakult Swallows, the club where he celebrated big successes. Also the second Tweet, indicates that he would like to retire as a Swallow. Jingu is the name of the stadium of the Yakult Swallows. This could only be arranged by a trade. Trades in Japan are not very common. They happen but not as regularly as in MLB.
For Balentien it would be nice if he could retire as a Swallow. We will see if the SoftBank Hawks are willing to grant his wish.
Dutch Baseball Hangout 
Would like to see Coco back at yakult.
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