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Former Royals Pitcher Tony Pena Jr. Signs With Boston Red Sox

Tony Pena Jr. is not only still around after some uninspiring years at shortstop for the Kansas City Royals, but he's actually catching on at an entirely different position, a la Rick Ankiel among others. Pena is now a pitcher who recently signed with the Boston Red Sox on a spring training invite in the hopes of turning his Major League career around and finding better luck on the mound.

Ben Nicholson-Smith writes, "Pena, who spent parts of four seasons as a big league shortstop, spent the 2010 season in the upper minors with the Giants and posted a 4.13 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 76 1/3 innings."

It's an interesting switch for Pena who could never do much with the bat for Kansas City. In 287 games played over three seasons for the Royals, Pena had a line of .228/.247/.298. Those are the sorts of numbers that set a league-worst level every year, so it's no wonder he tried to switch.