Expatriate games: MLB players who found success overseas

— -- Veteran Jonny Gomes, who won World Series titles with the Boston Red Sox in 2013 and the Kansas City Royals last season, but found few takers on the free-agent market this winter, is jumping to Japan this year to join the Rakuten Eagles of the Nippon Professional Baseball League. After the New York Yankees released pitcher Esmil Rogers last year, he headed to South Korea, where he signed with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korean Baseball Organization. Rogers, who had also played for the Colorado Rockies, Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays, pitched well enough there to earn a one-year, $1.9 million contract with Hanwha this season -- the largest deal the league had ever doled out to a foreign player in its 33-year history.

Meanwhile, Matt Murton is in camp with the  Chicago Cubs this spring, trying to return to the major leagues after a successful six-year run in Japan. Murton, Gomes and Rogers aren't the first MLB players to attempt to revive their careers outside the United States. A number of players -- even one Hall of Famer -- have used a solid season overseas as a springboard to renewed MLB success, while others stayed put and forged a second baseball act as expatriates.

Manny Ramirez

Played for: EDA Rhinos Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2013.

Unable to find a contract stateside after two suspensions for PED use, the 12-time All-Star and 2004 World Series MVP signed a short-term contract in 2013 to play in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League. Ramirez, who went to Taiwan hoping to earn another shot in the major leagues, hit .352 with eight memorable home runs and 43 RBIs in 49 games with the EDA Rhinos -- before returning to the U.S. because he said he missed his family.

Julio Franco