With the Pirates out of playoff contention and infielder Jung Ho Kang in the throes of an awful season, his time with the organization may be nearing an end. Kang’s Pirates tenure could expire as soon as shortstop Erik Gonzalez comes off the injured list on Aug. 6, Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic observes (subscription link).
General manager Neal Huntington admitted Wednesday that it’s “valid” to question Kang’s status with the organization, adding, “It’s a conversation we need to have as a group now that the trade deadline has come and gone.”
Manager Clint Hurdle even acknowledged it’s difficult to give playing time to a hitter whose “bat has not shown up as (much as) we were hoping to get.” Hurdle further noted, “There’s been a lot of swing and miss,” which is true. Kang swung and miss in 8.7 percent of plate appearances from 2015-18, but the number has skyrocketed to 16.0 this season. At the same time, after Kang struck out in 21.2 percent of PA during his first few years as a Pirate, he’s up to an unappealing 32.4 in 2019. The production has been abysmal as a result, with the previously impressive Kang having slashed a miserable .169/.222/.395 (56 wRC+) in 185 trips to the plate despite showing quite a bit of power (10 home runs, .227 ISO).
The fact that Kang’s only 15 PA from earning $625K in incentives could be important to the low-budget Pirates, Biertempfel points out. Kang would also earn an additional $625K by reaching 300, 400 and 500 plate trips. However, those look like unrealistic goals for Kang, who entered the season as the Pirates’ starting third baseman but has since faded into the background behind Colin Moran. Meanwhile, Kevin Newman‘s locking down shortstop – Kang’s secondary position – leaving no obvious spot for the veteran. He could become even less necessary to out-of-contention Pittsburgh with the return of Gonzalez, an offseason acquisition who hasn’t played since April 19 on account of clavicle and hamstring injuries.
Re-signing Kang was also part of the offseason business for the Pirates, who brought him back on a $3MM guarantee after turning down a $5.5MM club option. To this point, the team has stuck with Kang through worse ordeals than lousy on-field output. Kang, whom the Pirates signed out of Korea entering the 2015 season, was accused of sexual assault in 2016 (though criminal charges were never filed). He then missed all of 2017 and almost the entirety of last season because he had trouble acquiring a visa in the wake of his third DUI arrest in his homeland.
Kang was outstanding on the field before he sat out nearly two full years. But with his effectiveness having waned to a significant extent in 2019, it appears Kang’s finally about to run out of rope with the Pirates.
What are the pirates going to do for starting pitchers next year. I guess kuhl is back and brault could make rotation. I mean our bull pen could suck hopefully we got some of them healthy but. I would look to trade matte in off season for a top100 prospect pitcher ready to go. Sign Dickerson back out Reynolds in center.
Marte
Taillon should be back around May, they have Trevor Williams, Musgrove and Archer penciled in (for better or worse). Then they have Keller and Agrazal. It’s not a horrible rotation but just like this year it relies on Taillon being healthy and good. They’ll surely add another Lyles type to round it out.
kuhl should also be back in spring as well.
Betting Kuhl will be in the BP if healthy along with Santana. Hope Burdi is back healthy as he looked great until the injury. Those 3 would solidify the BP
Reynolds has way less range than Marte and no arm.
Re: Kang: It was a good risk the first time they brought him over and it worked out. It was a good risk the second time, but it didn’t work out. Time to DFA him.
For me, the worst part of this season has been seeing Kang play short and moving Newman to second with Moran at third to sit Frazier against lefty starters. If anything there’s no need to weaken an already suspect infield defense and they should just put Kang at second for Frazier if Kang is only in the lineup for his bat.
That being said, it’s entirely understandable that Kang’s timing and contact ability at the plate is off after having 3 days of at bats in the two years prior to this season, but it’s been past time to see if Kang can help this year.
To say he has no arm is inaccurate
He has an arm. Two in fact. It’s just that neither are good for throwing.
Thanks for Meadows and Glasnow Pirates!
Love, Rays fans!
Glasnow may or may not be back to where he was to start this year. Time will tell. Meadows has been his old self hitting from June 1st on. If he continues what he has since June 1st into next season, he will be giving you a .230-.240 average with a little power but nothing like he did for 2 months to start this year. That is where he was with the Pirates.
Even that is a plus considering how horrendous archer has been. Also forgot about baz.
Bartolo Colón and Jamie Moyer
Why would they keep him is the better question?
You mean to tell me that they’re not going to keep using double-A (no pun intended) talent in the bigs ?
Could? They already should have.
But they got Kang & Gonzo both for cheaper than Tim Beckham or Freddy Galvis.
..ik .. I’m still salty about the infield even with Newman stepping up and Moran being a little better than expected.
He’s human garbage but since he’s not hitting now we’ll think about getting rid of him. Not to mention that cheap owner is not going to pay that $625k.
And Jeffress is __________?
Smarter than Keone “Knucklehead” Kela.
EXACTLY. Talk about hypocrisy
BrewCrewBernie is a moron. Just ignore his “25% of the facts” based commentary.
Yes Braun and J.J. are garbage human beings as well. Your point being? If everyone who had a d bag on their team couldn’t call anyone out, there would be no comments on this site. That brawl was entertaining, enjoy watching your team throw at guys’ heads instead of trying to win baseball games.
Every team employs good baseball players who aren’t necessarily good people.
Lies.
Pirates don’t have good baseball players.
They have a few garbage human beings tho
You would know about human garbage huh? You have one or two on the Brewers roster.
Braun, for one.
Braun for two.. at least.
some one will resign him to a minors deal, with out ABs he cant fix what ever is wrong. but with moran hitting, kramer not looking all that bad hayes and tucker probably no room for him here.
That’s what I didn’t understand about giving him 2.5 or 3 mil guaranteed this offseason. There was no market for him and the Bucs probably could’ve signed him for a minors deal with a spring training Invite or just slightly above league minimum.
Wait you don’t think Kang & ChisenDL were worth blowing the entire off-season budget on?
Jk lol . Just funny ppl make excuses for Huntingtons salary crunch under Nutting, but fail to mention what he does waste the budget on
Not sure why people think Kramer will turn out to be something. Have zero expectations for him.
hes a b/b+ type, could be an everyday type but could be minors depth. not an exciting prospect but worth watching.
@ Joe W I agree with you. A lot of people were disparaging Newman even as this season started. He finally got his feet on the ground and absolutely is a keeper. Before this, everyone had written him off as a bust. Not saying Kramer will be anything special but I think he could be a very solid infield utility guy.at the least. His minor stats kinda look like Neil Walker’s did.
For 100 reasons the signing of Jung Ho Kang was just about the stupidest move of the pirate season.
It was strictly for trade bait. If he played well the Pirates would have made a killing in trading him. It wasn’t really a bad risk to take.
He shouldn’t have even been let back in the states. Time for him to go home and be well in Korea.
Ok, I’ll bite. Why should he not have been allowed back in the States?
For failing the police background check.
it was also that the pirates didn’t have a third basemen that could hit. Turns out Moran can now hit decently and now Kang can’t… and yeah trade bait if hayes was looking good. (hayes stats don’t look great but reports are hes doing what he needs to)
now you wana talk about horrible signing?… Lonnie.. not one regular season game. I think he wasn’t doing too well (health wise) when they signed him too but i don’t remember.
Pretty sure Tim Beckham signed for same price as Kang..
Some GM we have here.
You know Moran has been better than Beckham and that Newman has been better than Galvis, right?
Huntingdon got Kang and Gonzalez as veteran insurance and to force his young players to earn a job (for once) instead of just being handed one.
Would you rather…
A) Moran and Newman emerge as viable players?
B) Have them blocked by Galvis and Beckham but more money comes out of Nutting’s wallet?
Wrong. ChisenDL was worst signing.
Kang 2nd worst.. n were taking about in the entire MLB folks
Re signing Kang made sense at the first of the season as Moran was sporadic last year. Moran has been more productive as an everyday player this year and Kang obviously declined during his 2 years off so it doesn’t make any sense to keep him. This years Bucs team really wasn’t bad had everyone been able to stay healthy. They showed promise early on and were on fire before the AS break but have been pathetic since…
DJ Lemahieu would’ve been way better than re-signing Kang. Or Moustakas, Schoop, Villar, hell even Neil Walker.
But not cheaper, which was important to Pittsburgh
I was pounding the drum for Tim Beckham…
DJLM was never an option, but TB and Galvis both signed for cheap.
Ok, love that ” they should have signed___________ ” and fill in the blank. argument. Players can not be forced to sign with anyone. No teams ever say who all they made offers too in FA. Walker was never going to ever come back here again plus he as been on the shelf with injuries a couple of times again this year. Moustakas wanted back in Milwaukee, Surprised Schoop got the money he did from the Twins considering he had a couple of down years and neither Baltimore or Milwaukee wanted him back, Villar maybe. No matter what, you have to have a player willing to sign a FA deal and not every player will sign for the highest amount. Some do but many want to stay in an area for family considerations too if the money is even just reasonably close in the offers.
I was simply pointing out that there were options besides Kang to fill the utility infielder role on the bench. The Pirates bought out the option in his previous contract for a million dollars just to re-sign him at a 3 million dollar base with contract escalators for at bats that would allow him to ultimately make the same amount of money as his original option for this year. All for a guy who didn’t play in the majors for past two years and had no free agent market. It was a dumb and terrible investment from the beginning.
In bringing Kang back the Pirates got what they deserved.
they had to pay him anyway, might as well pay a little more and see if it works out. It didn’t but didn’t really hurt the team. Him doing poorly at the plate likely didn’t cost the pirates much as far as their record goes.
One thing that he did do better than expected was play short. Far less range when he first got to the US but still didn’t look tooooo bad.
Lot cheaper than signing a real SS.. or real major Leaguer for that matter.