TODAY: Kim’s official posting period begins tomorrow morning and ends at 4pm CT on January 5, as per Yoo’s latest report. The delay in Kim’s posting was due to some extra medical documentation that the KBO had to submit to Major League Baseball.
NOV. 28: The KBO has officially asked MLB to post Kim, Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News tweets. After MLB notifies its clubs, Kim’s 30-day negotiating window will open at 8 a.m. ET the next day.
NOV. 22, 5:32pm: Kim is getting hits from several MLB teams, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription link). The Mets, Royals, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Cubs are all said to have shown some level of interest in the southpaw. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be seen as a rotation or bullpen candidate and what kind of salary terms teams will be amenable to offering.
1:38am: The SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization will post left-hander Kwang-hyun Kim, according to Naver Sports (via Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Kim has already made it known that he’d like to pursue a major league opportunity in 2020.
Under the rules of the agreement between MLB and the KBO, Kim will be free to negotiate with all 30 big league clubs upon his posting. The release fee the Wyverns would receive if Kim were to sign with a major league team would depend on the value of his contract.
This will be the second posting for Kim, who was available to major league teams back in 2014 but was unable to reach an agreement with the Padres after they won the bidding for him for $2MM. The Padres are reportedly among several teams who have shown much more recent interest in Kim, a longtime star in his homeland.
The 30-year-old Kim has pitched his entire career with the Wyverns since debuting in the KBO at the age of 18 in 2007, though he did miss all of 2017 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Kim has bounced back well from that procedure, however, and owns a sparkling 3.27 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 1,673 2/3 innings in what has typically been a hitter-friendly league. He logged an even better 2.51 ERA and recorded 8.5 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 across 190 1/3 frames in 2019.
Kim’s repertoire includes a low- to mid-90s, a major league-caliber slider, a curveball and a forkball, as Sung Min Kim of the KBO’s Lotte Giants tweeted in August. Although Kim boasts a well-rounded pitch mix, it’s unclear how aggressively MLB teams will pursue him. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote in their Top 50 free agent rankings that Kim’s slider is a “nasty, tilt-a-whirl” offering but that the rest of his pitches are average at best, calling him more of a fifth starter or swingman.
Teams will surely have their own ideas about how to coax some improvements out of the lefty, be it via a move to the bullpen or some alterations to his pitch selection and location. For now, though, he’ll at least add a bit more intrigue to a southpaw pitching market led by fellow Korea native Hyun-Jin Ryu, Madison Bumgarner, Cole Hamels and Dallas Keuchel on the starting side and Drew Pomeranz on the relief side.
Added in fantrax. Thanks
Espn will add him by March 2022..
looks like a better candidate than Shun.
MLB needs to have a quota for international players the way international teams do with American players. There are too many to keep track of this offseason, and I need to be able to watch every game to know whether they are good or not. Since I can’t use the reliable eye test on these players, all of their stats are hogwash.
who cares how many there are to track? 26 man rosters should comprise of the best 780 players in the world. no way linits on foreign players accomplishes this.
Quota is bad idea. penalizes the teams which have considerable scouting in the far east and pretty much levels the playing field for teams which cheap out and have little to none there.
Don’t forget considerable young talent is signed out of Korea and Taiwan which comes to the US before playing in any of the Asian professional leagues. What you are suggesting would count, kids like Tzu Wei lin signed as an 18yo several years back and will probably get a full year on a roster this year since is not blocked for a utility role.
And even worse it penalizes the players who want to come to the majors.
So it would hurt the teams and players…. It would make Wilfred Brimley’s life better… and nothing makes Wilfred Brimley’s day better than starting it off with a hot bowl of Quaker Oats.
He had 17 wins this year. That mean’s he’s good, right?
he has been the best there for some time. he can pitch quite well in the majors from what i have heard.
that puts him right up there with Gerrit Cole.
kbo. is consideted to be somewhere between aaa and aaaa.
And the NPB is AAAA.
however, top players in either league can possibly top in either leagues.
Have u researched him vs cole. Obviously no
Please hurry and watch teh gaemez, actual scouts and other talent evaluators are waiting anxiously.
Don’t think the MLB is going to wait on you to use your good ol faithful eye test. Thank God too. Give me stats over your eye test any day. Math is what it is while the eye test depends on your subjective opinion.
MLB isnt going to wait on you to apply your good ol faithful eye test to every player that comes into the majors. Give me stats over the eye test any day. Math doesnt have a bias or and isnt subjective but your eye test is.
One more time please.
I almost thought you were serious. You are elderly after all, Mr. Brimley. Don’t forget your glasses when you do your eye tests.
Are you a troll?
Troll of the day.
Does that include players from Latin America?
Why would the MLB need to do that? That’s an absurd suggestion — the only reason the foreign leagues have that rule in place is to keep things competitive so that the Korean/Japanese league teams don’t just go and sign an entire roster of MLB players. Why in the world would the MLB need to institute it just so that you can scout the potential ML-players better? This has got to be one of the most absurd posts of all time.
Sounds like some final solution type verbiage.
Hey Wilford I hope you’re keeping that Diabetes under control. Diet is everything.
It’s diabetes not liveabetes
He’s a solid pitcher but wanted to be posted for mlb money. Show mlb on 1 or 2 years then you get. He lost out in 2014
he earned around $2 mil in ’19 plus whatever the bonus the team paid.
I’d think the comparison might start better with guys like Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, Alex Wood “on the starting side”…
He sucks! Already saw several videos of him. Don’t believe the low to mid 90’s fastball either! His fastball is slow and straight, which usually equals 500’ homeruns!
Welp. there’s that. Just saved an MLB team from throwing away millions. And they actually pay scouts to go to games. lolz what idiots.
Careful, this guy is a baseball freak. We should listen to him.
He should be a 4/5 starting pitcher here in the MLB.
Are we taking bets on the TJ timeline? I say he’s in a sling by the all star break.
Offer him 40 acres and a Kia.
US only makes good on reparations if it’s to Stalin.
I thought Korean players could move to MLB without a posting fee after 10+ seasons. Am I confusing this with Japanese baseball perhaps?
Sounds like this guy has been playing professionally for 11-12 years now.
My understanding is that he signed another contract about 2 years ago, which would have kept him with the Wyverns until the end of 2021. So for him to leave the team (since he’s still under the contract), he had to acquire the team’s permission and go thru the posting system.
He’s under contract for 1 more season in Korea, he’s owed about 1.1M$ US.
Interesting player. He will be a low-risk, high-reward player as long as you don’t overpay.
Anyone ever find it odd when 2 logging trucks pass each other up.
not at all when one’s full and the other, empty.
if one is going west at 10 MPH, and the other East at 20, when will they collide?
Ummm, true? I mean B.
You have to use logs to solve the problem.
4!
Sounds like you stole a Brian Regan joke, but left out the funny part
By the look of his KBO numbers he might be better suited as a bullpen arm for long relief or spot starting.
Be interesting to see how it plays out. Age obviously hurts him, but if he can pitch, God bless him.
Yes, god bless the guy who throws the ball. Starving kids? Cancer riddled veterans? F em.
I read that the Mets were interested and I’m all for it. Kim may not be an ace caliber pitcher but he seems like he would be a solid SP 4 or 5. Plus I like having two southpaws in the rotation.
With Pirates having issues with the Pitching department, I wouldn’t object to them offering a bid. But Bob Nutting won’t open the wallet for a guy with talent or promise
I want to watch the parabolas of his pitches. See if they cross the x-axis or not. That would be the i test. You need to use the discriminant to c the y-intercept. His axis of symmetry should intersect the vertex. Where’s the focus? How does he function? Yes, must use math.
Really hoping the Mets are in on him. Shouldn’t be expensive and looks like he’ll be a solid SP.
“A low to mid 90s” what?
I have followed his entire career. He has really evolved as a pitcher over time. In his early days he exclusively threw his mid-90’s fastball and a wipeout slider. He was however, prone to lapses in control and frustrated his fans with inconsistency. Now, while Kim’s fastball is barely over 90, he has utilized his secondary stuff way more than he used to, and he has improved his focus and control significantly.
If you are expecting another Ryu, you will be disappointed, as Ryu has always been a much better pitcher overall. I am also not convinced that he will be a serviceable starter in MLB, though I believe that he will get an opportunity as an mlb starter this time around.