Former Tiger Brayan Pena is an undercover relief pitcher

Brayan Pena has been all over the place since he caught for the Detroit Tigers in 2013. He signed a two-year deal with the Cincinnati Reds for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, then played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2016. This season Pena is in the Kansas City Royals organization. He has been playing for the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate, the Omaha Storm Chasers, since the season began, and on Sunday he had an opportunity to come out of the bullpen in relief. The Storm Chasers were in the ninth inning and on the wrong side of an 11-0 blowout and turned to Pena in an effort to save the rest of their pitchers. After all, he had another relief appearance earlier in the season when he pitched 1 ¹⁄₃ innings and only gave up one unearned run. Sadly, there’s no video from that appearance. But there is a clip from his outing on Sunday, during which he threw a pitch that lit up the radar gun at a whopping 43 mph.

You probably remember Pena from his days in Detroit for being a cheerful player who always seemed to be smiling. He was — and still is! — fun to watch, especially when you consider the time he crushed a home run and ran around the bases at top speed:

Or the time he pulled teammates Miguel Cabrera, Anibal Sanchez, and Max Scherzer together to sing along with “Sweet Caroline” during a seventh-inning stretch at Fenway Park in Boston:

And who could forget the time Miggy tried to give Pena a fig newton?

However you remember Pena’s Tigers tenure, I think we can all agree that we wish him the best of luck in whichever organization he’s in. He’s just that great of a dude.