Pirates GM Neal Huntington more clearly spelled out what looked to be an increasingly apparent reality on Thursday, telling Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that one can “pretty much eliminate the thought” of Jung Ho Kang suiting up for the Pirates in 2017.
The 30-year-old Kang was arrested and charged with his third DUI in South Korea this past offseason. The resulting sentence called for eight months of prison time, but that punishment was suspended for two years and allowed the infielder to avoid serving any actual jail time so long as he does not violate terms set forth under the suspended sentence. Kang’s appeal was denied, and he has since been unable to secure a work visa after his applications have been rejected by the United States embassy.
“That’s unfortunate,” said Huntington. “The situation is a result of regrettable actions. As far as 2018, we still remain optimistic that we’ll go through the process again this offseason, and perhaps the thought process or the environment will change. But we have to face the reality that it might not.”
The 2017 season is the third of a four-year, $11MM pact that Kang signed with the Pirates, though he has not received any of this year’s $2.75MM salary due to his placement on the restricted list. The contract calls for him to earn $3MM in 2018 and includes a $5.5MM club option with a $250K buyout for the 2019 campaign as well.
In Kang’s absence, the Bucs have turned to David Freese as their primary third baseman, with versatile Josh Harrison also seeing some time at the hot corner. The veteran Freese, who signed to a two-year extension last summer, has responded with a .244/.374/.362 batting line through his first 262 trips to the plate in 2017. In Kang’s first two Major League seasons, the former Nexen Heroes star batted .273/.355/.483 with 36 home runs in 837 plate appearances.
Visa denied, 8-month sentence pushed back 2 years. Didn’t have to tell us that he won’t be playing this year… or next year… or 2019. Or a long time
His sentence wasn’t just “pushed back”, it was suspended…meaning if he stays within the terms of his sentence, his jail sentence will be expunged.
Send him to North Korea
Your right, they’ll teach him properly…. NOT
All that money. He couldn’t hire a personal driver. 50k-100k a year for a driver is a steal compared to have he just lost.
In South Korea I doubt it would cost even that.
I was referring to us and South Korea as a whole
You probably can’t even speak Korean.
Nope. You’re just a troll.
I would use uber
in other news, water is wet.
+1
Look at the bright side, at least he’ll have more time to drink and party.
Sadly, I thought about that possibility.
What exactly are the rules of the restricted list? Does it freeze the time on his contract or just the pay?
I think it freezes both since a player doesn’t accumulate any service time while they’re there but I’m not positive
I don’t suppose the Pirates will be picking up that team option now
Seriously, they are too cheap they don’t want him back anyway, not the morals issue it’s they dont want anyone who is good or cost money,
Swing and a miss.
If anything they want him back because they are cheap. He signed a 4 year deal for less than 20 million
I guess the question now is…. Does he accrue service time on the restricted list?
Doubtful. He probably won’t get any service time if he can’t even enter the country
bummer. hope he gets the help he needs
I like this deal
Does anybody know how/if the CBA addresses something like this? So say a guy is locked up and unable to fulfill his contract for a year, does that year get added to the backend, or can a team just terminate the contract?
If I’m the Pirates, I’m livid that I lose one of his “cheap” years, but then are on the hook for a more expensive year later down the road or a buyout. Can teams tear up the deal if this happens?
All this talk about contracts and service time is completely moot if Kang will be unable to get a visa for the remainder of his contract.
But if he doesn’t accrue any service time, will his contract run out? That’s what I’m curious about
If he’s on the restricted list, does it count as a year on his contract? Or is his contract, for lack of a better word, suspended?
It counts as a year under his contract.
It might not be obvious but contracts specify not only the term (length) of the contract they also state that term with specificity, i.e. “A period of four years commencing on x date and terminating on y date” or similar. If a player misses a year he can’t make up for it by adding another year to the end of the current term.
I’m sure there is a contract clause which deals with ‘Player’s Inability to Perform (non medical)’ or similar which addresses this sort of situation. The player loses both salary and service time as well as that year of his contract.
No it doesn’t. Any player on the restricted list does not earn service time.
“Any player on the restricted list does not earn service time.”
“The player loses both salary and service time as well as that year of his contract.”
Congrats! You managed to misunderstand both the question and the answer. While “correcting” an answer you actually agreed with. That’s truly impressive.
This fella was the best Korean third baseman since
Good. Kang needs to get his act together – grow up.
The Pirates have an absurdly stupid fan base and it’s because of a media that either doesn’t know what they are talking about or want to mushroom manage the fans.
They CONSTANTLY insist that the Pirates make bad baseball moves in order to “prove they want to win”.
Ex.: Last year, they wanted the Pirates to keep Melancon to “prove they want to win”. Unlike position players or starters where it’s nebulous and hard to determine their impact, it’s pretty easy to count blown saves to find out whether you miss the closer you traded. Keeping Melancon would have changed nothing last year.
But, having Felipe Rivero for the next 5 years seems pretty sweet now, huh?
Now, the same people want a 4th place team that is 5 games under .500 to buy at the deadline to “prove they want to win.”
All too true. Too many Mark Madden wannabes out there giving the rest of us a bad name.
Good for Kang. More drinking time for him.