Left-hander David Huff has signed a contract with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization, the team announced (Korean link to Naver Sports; hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Huff’s base salary with his new club is $550K, per the announcement.
The 31-year-old Huff made a pair of appearances with the Angels this season but was tagged for seven earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. That marks the second abbreviated season of Major League work for Huff, who last saw significant time in the bigs with the Yankees and Giants in 2014 (combined 59 innings). The Indians selected Huff out of UCLA with the 39th overall pick in the 2006 draft, and while he debuted with Cleveland as a 24-year-old in 2009, Huff never fully established himself as a regular contributor in the Majors. He’s had some solid stretches, to be sure, but the overall result of his time in the Majors is a 5.17 ERA with 5.4 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 in 393 1/3 innings. He’s logged a considerably better 4.06 ERA in 640 1/3 innings of Triple-A ball, however, and averaged more strikeouts (7.0) and fewer walks (2.2) on a per-nine-inning basis at that level.
Huff has been under contract with the Angels and made an appearance for the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Salt Lake City as recently as Sunday, so the Halos are presumably receiving some type of financial compensation for selling his contractual rights to the KBO’s Twins.
With LG Twins starting pitcher, Scott Copeland (who signed with them last April, for 750,000 USD on a one-year deal), released by the team when the new acquisition was made, new comer David Huff will replace Copeland as the teams’ new starter this season, right below RH starting pitcher Henry Sosa’s second spot in the rotation… he is expected to pitch for LG some time next week…
Scott Copeland finished the 2016 season with the LG Twins having a record of 2-3, while posting an ERA of 5.54 in 14 games in the year, as the teams’ third starter in the rotation.
Seems to me a lot of these kinda players that don’t see a path to the bigs are taking KBO money rather than sit in the minors for (I don’t know how much?).
In the end I think this dilutes the US minor league talent because all teams need some veteran presence there alongside the young guys coming up. Many are as much coaches as they are players.
I’ve always thought MiLB players should be paid more personally.