Ray Chang didn’t start out with the Cincinnati Reds organization. He signed with the San Diego Padres as a non-drafted free agent in 2005. Chang moved onto the Pittsburgh organization in 2008 before playing with Boston in 2010, then Minnesota from 2011-2012.
It was 2013 when Ray Chang joined the Cincinnati Reds organization. In that time he has played for both the Pensacola Blue Wahoos and Louisville Bats. A majority of that time has been with Double-A Pensacola, with just 133 total plate appearances coming for Triple-A Louisville.
At the Pensacola stop on the Reds Caravan it was announced that Ray Chang is retiring. Along with that, he will be taking over the baseball operations for MLB China. While the new role is official, it won’t be entirely new for Chang. Over the past several offseasons he has been traveling, on behalf of Major League Baseball, to China to help expand the game in the country.
Kourage Kundahl was at the event in Pensacola and spoke with Ray Chang who had this to say to the fans in Pensacola.
It’s the end of an era as Ray Chang announces his retirement after 12 seasons. Thanking fans in one last hurrah at the caravan. #Reds pic.twitter.com/4U5uGM7hqw
— Kourage Kundahl (@kouragekundahl) January 14, 2017
While Ray Chang was born in Kansas City, his parents were born in Shanghai and Hong Kong and he still has a lot of family there. You can read more about this aspect over at the Pensacola News Journal where Eric Wallace goes into more detail about it.