Former Blue Jays fan favourite Munenori Kawasaki has been signed to a minor-league contract by the Chicago Cubs.

The signing includes an invitation to the Cubs’ spring training.

News of Kawasaki’s signing broke on Twitter late Wednesday by Jon Morosi of Fox Sports, prompting an affectionate and nostalgic reaction from Jays’ fans.

Toronto fans embraced the quirky 34-year-old infielder when he first joined the Jays three seasons ago with the team in the middle of a two-decades long, post-season drought.

But last year, with the team on its way to an American League East Division crown, he spent most of the season with Class AAA Buffalo. He played just 23 games for the Toronto last season, batting .214.

“Oh, gosh. How am I going to tell my daughter about #munenori?,” tweeted @MaJen, noting that Kawasaki was amused when he saw his name on her daughter’s jersey.

“She paid her own $ to have his name on her jersey,” @MaJen tweeted. “When he saw, he said, “Hey! You - Kawasaki; me - Kawasaki!” #BlueJays”

Some fans loved highlights showing Kawasaki dancing in the dugout or clubhouse for no apparent reason, and his TV interviews. He once told a Toronto reporter he ate bananas because “a monkey never cramps.”

He told the Star in Kobe, Japan last February that he was reporting for the Jays with a wider skill base and an enlarged butt.

“Hey, what are you looking at?” Kawasaki joked in Japanese. “I’ve been really working on my lower body — not my butt, but the area around my hips and hip joints. The idea is to increase the range of motion so I have the foundation to make better plays on defence and take better at-bats. The result might be a bigger looking butt, but you should stop looking there and watch the way I am moving now.”

He said a year ago he didn’t begrudge the Jays sending him to their minor-league affiliate in Buffalo.

“I’m so happy and grateful because I can continue learning the plays I want to make. Of course, I want to play in Toronto. But if I have to go to Buffalo that’s fine, because I can work on it there, too.

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“I love baseball. That’s it. I love baseball and Toronto has offered me the chance to keep learning and working on things I couldn’t do in Japan. For that reason, I love Toronto.”

Back in 2013, he tried to console his fan base when he was sent down to the minors.

“It’s not as if I’ve died,” he said through an interpreter. “I’m still a baseball player. It’s just that tomorrow the field will be different.”