Veteran first baseman James Loney has signed on with Korea’s LG Twins, Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap reports on Twitter. He’ll earn a $350K salary during his first foray into the Korea Baseball Organization.
Loney, 33, has struggled to find a major league opportunity this year after eleven straight seasons of action in the majors. He opened the year in the Tigers’ system but was released after a rough start. And he landed with the Braves after Freddie Freeman’s injury, but then requested his release when the club went out and got Matt Adams to step in at the major league level.
Last year, Loney was able to find big league time after starting out at Triple-A. His early-season stint with the Padres’ top affiliate was his first non-rehab time in the minors since 2007. But Loney soon found a spot with the Mets, who needed a replacement for Lucas Duda. Loney ended the 2016 season with 366 plate appearances of .265/.307/.397 hitting.
That output fell shy of Loney’s typical offensive production. While he has never been much of a power threat — last year’s .131 ISO actually falls over his career average — Loney has typically hit for average and reached base at a steady clip. He also once drew top marks for his glovework at first, but has fallen back into the general range of average in recent campaigns.
All that said, the 33-year-old represents a polished hitter for his new club. We’re accustomed to reading of the exploits of power hitters in the KBO, with its high run-scoring environment. It’ll be interesting to see whether Loney finds his power stroke, but at a minimum he figures to make for a tough out for pitchers facing the LG Twins.
If he played any other position he would at least 5 mill in the MLB.
English much?
This guy defense was gold. What happened Loney? I was always a fan of your game, Rays days. But it was all downhill after re-signing a three year $21M contract with the Rays. They released you eating the entire last year of that deal and you’ve been bounced around since.
The good news is you’re only 33 years old and a career .284 hitter. Cmon Loney, get it together!!!
Don’t get how a career 104 OPS+ averaging 12 home runs a year with an above average glove at first can’t get major league jobs. Befuddles me
Because in the grand scheme of the 1B position, that’s pretty terrible.
If you look at what’s valued in the contemporary game, he doesn’t have much going for him. His reputation as a great defender doesn’t hold up on metrics, and he’s certainly a decent hitter, but isn’t a great power or on-base guy. Basically, he’s a serviceable replacement level bench option, and they’re a dime a dozen.
Use a weighted stat for positional adjustment
Needs to hang it up – almost delusional when a player who made 7 figures in the MLB signs a contract in a foreign league for AA minor league money – if he was really grasping for straws, he should have gone with the Independent League (if anybody would have him)