Dec. 19: The Rangers announced that Asuaje’s rights have been sold to the KBO’s Giants. He’ll soon sign a contract with his new organization — one that will likely afford him upwards of the $1MM maximum that first-year foreign players can earn in the KBO. It’ll be a sizable increase in pay for a player who was no sure bet to stick on a Major League roster all season and would’ve only earned at roughly the $555K league-minimum rate (pro-rated for his time in the big leagues).
Dec. 16: Asuaje is “expected” to become a member of the Lotte Giants when they finalize a buyout from the Rangers, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets.
Dec. 14: Infielder Carlos Asuaje is nearing agreement on a deal that’ll bring him to the Korea Baseball Organization, according to Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal (Twitter link). Terms of the prospective deal are not known.
Presumably, the Rangers are on board with this move. The Texas club paid $50K to claim Asuaje off waivers from the Padres just a few days ago, but it wasn’t entirely clear what role he’d play given the existing slate of roster pieces. Perhaps this move will allow the club to clear a tidy financial profit.
Now 27 years of age, Asuaje has seen action in parts of three MLB campaigns. He’s a cumulative .240/.312/.329 hitter in 586 plate appearances, with significant platoon splits. Asuaje is considered a solid defender at second base, but isn’t an option at short.
Needless to say, that’s not the profile of a regular major league asset, though certainly Asuaje could still carve out a steady role at the game’s highest level. For now, though, he’ll take the bigger payday and steadier work on offer in the KBO.
does anyone know what KBO teams generally pay MLB teams to release players?
Anywhere from a few hundred thousand to a few million I believe.
I think it’s usually like half a million or so
Lotte Giants are going to replace Andy Burns with Carlos Asuaje.
Either commit to international news or don’t, stop sprinkling it in
Easy there tiger, he’s currently on a MLB roster, hence it’s MLB news
Neat criticism.
or don’t bother commenting
I actually prefer to read more international news. But when it’s guys like this, I kinda wish it was its own page. Just a way to keep up with the smaller players. Yes, technically it’s mlb news but it falls more into that minor transaction page before it’s own story
He’s on a 40-man roster and, increasingly, we see players jump to KBO/NPB and return to reasonable paydays and success in the Majors.
It’d take you less time to scroll past this post than it would to comment and complain.
Well actually a good idea maybe start an international section of baseball where they can put news about the players in all those leagues in it so we may know on players that may come in the future.
dilly dilly!
Right, everything u just mentioned to me, minor transactions until a return to reasonable paydays. Thanks for confirming my point
I don’t think an international page is that unreasonable. It might even spark more American interest.
Speaking of, I’m thinking of creating something like that. Need authors besides myself though.
No it won’t
Nice to see now and then
But most don’t care about anything not American
It’s MLB news. Get over yourself.
Carlos need to layoff the E-sports and focus on baseball. He looked good when he first came up in 2017.
Maybe I missed something here, but when did it start that teams had to pay $50K to claim a player off waivers?
Always
I think its smart of him…he knows what sort of player he is and isnt. And his career track would be cut VERY short if hung around the MLB waiting for bigger paychecks. Maybe at some point he gets his stock up enough to make a run for a big league job in a few yrs like Mikolas did. And maybe not. If I were him, Id stay in Asia as long as those checks keep clearing. Little guys tend to have problems hanging on in MLB, unless they have a weapon or two that keeps them on the same level as the bigger/better p;layers…(see: Altuve/Pedroia)
Is that Russel Brand??
yes
They’re going to pay him upwards of the maximum? Doesn’t that make it not the maximum?
In the past the wealthier KBO teams were notorious for paying foreign players more than they reported and more than was allowed by the rules then in effect, Under the new rules, the penalties for paying more than the $1 million hard cap on total compensation for a foreign player’s first contract with a KBO team are pretty draconian, at least on paper, so I am doubtful that Asuaje will be getting more than $1 million in 2019.
Hopefully after a good/great 2019 Asuaje will go over $1 million. Any thoughts on Henry Sosa? Also, nice to talk w/you off CPBLstats.com .